ORD S,  WORK! 


$0: 


a 


■j 


'10 4J..    '  /a  "rs< ■■/'       '7          )  ///t<lf7/. 


MOODY: 

HIS  WORDS,  WORK,  AND  WORKERS. 

COMPRISING 

HIS  BIBLE  PORTRAITS; 

HIS   OUTLINES   OF   DOCTRINE, 

gis  gtfeen  in  bis  ifiost  popular  anb  ©ffeetifa  Sermons,  $ible  Ticabings, 

anb  ^bbrcssrs  in  (Irbinburqb,  Stablm,  Jfonbon,  |Mjilabcljjbia, 

-  |ttto  ||orh,  (L'bicago,  anb  Boston; 

SKETCHES   OF  HIS  CGk-WORKERS,   MESSRS.   SANKEY,  BLISS, 
WHITTLE,  SAWYER,  AND  OTHERS; 

AND    AN   ACCOUNT   OF 

THE  GOSPEL  TEMPERANCE  REVIVAL, 
WITH  THRILLING  EXPERIENCES  OF  CONVERTED  INEBRIATES. 

EDITED    BY    REV.     //'.    //.    DA  XI  ELS,    A.M. 

WITH  AX  INTRODUCTION 
BY  REV.  CHARLES  II.  FOWLER,  U.D.,  LL.D. 

"Willi    3Po>i-tx-r\.its    a.m.d    IllTj-Stx^a-tioaas. 


SOLD    B"S"     SXTBSCHIPTIOST. 


NELSON     &     PHILLIPS, 

NEW  YORK,  BOSTON.  BUFFALO,  PITTSBURGH,  AND  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

HITCHCOCK     &    WAL.DEN. 

CI  NCI  XX  All,     CHICAGO,     AND     ST.     LOUIS. 

1877. 


Fntered   according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1877,  by 

NELSON    &    PHILLIPS, 

in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


SRLF 
YftL 


INTRODUCTION. 


§LL  the  Gospel  needs  is  to  be  told.  Once  out,  it  achieves 
its  own  victories.  All  the  advance  it  has  made  in  the 
centuries  has  been  made  by  its  inherent  power,  and  the  work 
of  the  Christians  of  to-day  is  by  all  agencies  to  tell  the  Good 
News,  to  scatter  the  Clad  Tidings. 

A  forward  movement  has  been  made  in  the  labors,  experi- 
ences, and  successes  of  Mr.  Moody-  The  sum  of  his  influence 
is  not  confined  to  the  audiences  that  gather  within  the  sound 
of  his  voice.  A  fire  on  the  summit  of  a  promontory  dues  more 
than  consume  the  fagots  with  which  it  is  fed;  it  illumines  the 
valley,  and  casts  its  guiding  ray  far  out  over  the  breakers.  Mr. 
Moody,  seizing  upon  the  great  cities  of  the  English-speaking 
peoples,  has  cast  his  light  from  these  promontories  down  into 
the  neighboring  valleys,  and  out  over  the  perilous  coasts  and 
on  to  the  stormy  sea.  The  people  who  read,  as  well  as  those 
who  hear,  are  recipients  of  his  reflected  light.  The  workers 
who  rally  around  him,  and  the  stronger  workers  who  spring 
up  in  his  path  to  imitate  his  example  and  disseminate  his  in- 
fluence, are  parts  of  his  work.  The  newspapers  are  one  sec- 
tion of  his  platform.  Presses  are  a  sort  of  speaking-tube  to 
project  his  accents  in  the-  hearts  of  other  thousands. 

Publishers  shun  volumes  of  sermons  which  it  is  difficult  to 
push  out:  they  seem  possessed  of  the  instinct  of  inactivity. 
To  this  rule  the  volumes  of  Mr.  Moody's  sermons  are  excep- 
tions ;  not  because  he  omits  the  Rev.  from  his  name,  nor  that 
his  sayings  are  not  called  sermons;  it  is  rather  that  he  makes 
his  discourses  sparkle  and  shine  from  end  to  end  with  the 
truths  that  the  (march  wants,  and  the  world  needs  to  hear. 

Hi-,   machine  bees    bespeak  genius.      They  were   so  made 


4  Introduction. 

and  so  wound  up  that  one  could  not  distinguish  them  from 
the  natural  bees  when  all  crowded  and  hopped  about  together 
in  front  of  the  hive.  A  stranger,  required  to  distinguish  be- 
tween them,  dropped  a  little  honey  down  among  them  :  the 
read  bees  dashed  after  it  ;  the  machine  bees  buzzed  and 
crawled  about  as  before.  So  the  Gospel  is  made  to  distin- 
guish the  true  from  the  machine  Christians. 

I'iscourses  full  of  such  hits  cannot  fail  to  have  readers. 

It  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  great  military  leader  of  our  time 
that  he  has  what  his  great  companion  in  arms  calls  "  the  in- 
stinct of  victory,"  by  which  "  he  divines  the  precise  moment 
for  the  decisive  blow."  He  seems  "inattentive  to  minor 
points  on  the  field,  knowing  that  if  the  main  points  are  held 
the  others  can  be  easily  retaken."  This  is  a  crude  outside 
type  of  Mr.  Moody's  style  of  usefulness.  He  has  "///,"  in- 
stinct of  victory"  He  knows  when  to  strike  the  decisive 
blow.  With  him  it  is  inspiration,  the  reception  of  that  wis- 
dom which  is  promised. to  them  that  ask.  He  seems  "inat- 
tentive to  minor  points  on  the  field  ; "  with  him  it  is  a 
comprehension  of  the  essential  points  for  the  world's  salva- 
tion, and  a  simple  conviction  that  the  others  will  easily  and 
speedily  drop  into  their  proper  places  and  receive  all  neces- 
sary attention. 

The  signs  of  Mr.  Moody's  power  are  too  numerous  to  be 
doubted.  His  name  is  familiar  to  every  English-hearing  ear; 
lie  discourses  and  exhorts  in  many  modern  languages  ;  more 
space  in  the  dispatches  and  reports  of  the  secular  press  is 
given  to  him  than  is  given  to  any  other  living  teacher;  vast 
auditoriums  are  built  by  the  great  cities  to  make  for  him  a 
temporary  abode  ;  he  rallies  a  great  army  of  co-workers  :  all 
these  things  demonstrate  his  alliance  with  the  real  forces  of 
the  world. 

Lai  her  bequeathed  to  us  the  Reformation,  Wesley  be- 
queathed Methodism,  Mr.  Moody  is  destined  to  leave  to 
mankind  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  in  which 
he  has  been  chiefly  trained,  and  whose  leader  and  patron  he 
has  now  <  ome  to  be. 


Introduction.  5 

This  Association  means  a  baptism  of  responsibility  and  of 
labor  upon  the  laymen  of  the  Churches. 

The  grand  results  of  Mr.  Moody's  work  are: — 

i.  The  salvation  of  many  thousands  of  precious  souls. 

2.  The  re-enthronement  of  the  supernatural  power  of  the 
Gospel  as  a  practical  answer  to  the  impious  prayer-test  chal- 
lenge of  science. 

3.  The  awakening  of  believers  to  new  achievements. 

4.  The  unification  of  Protestantism. 

5.  The  exaltation  of  the  vital  doctrines  of  the  Calvinistic 
Churches  to  the  practical  retirement  of  the  old  Five  Points. 

6.  The  rendering  ubiquitous  the  vital  truths  and  practices 
of  Arminianism,  without  the  embarrassment  of  their  dogmatic 
projection. 

7.  The  transforming  of  the  old  uniform  of  the  saint  into  the 
business  dress  of  the  believer,  so  that  Christianity  is  at  home 
every-where. 

8.  The  promulgation  of  the  priesfhood  of  believers  so  far 
as  to  require  them  to  tell  the  story  of  the  cross. 

In  projecting  a  great  character  and  a  great  life-work  at  least 
two  things  are  necessary  :  first,  the  character  and  work  itself. 
both  genuine  and  vast  ;  second,  some  just,  able,  and  equally 
inspired  historian  to  arrange,  crystallize,  and  transfigure  the 
man  and  his  doings. 

This  publication  is  carefully  edited  by  Rev.  W.  II.  Daniels, 
who  is  so  widely  and  favorably  known  through  his  former  book 
entitled  "  D.  I..  Moody  and  his  Work."  The  present  vol- 
ume has  received  the  utmost  care  to  perfect  it  and  make  it 
available  for  permanent  usefulness.  The  editor  has  carefully 
compared,  arranged,  and  classified  Mr.  Moody's  theology,  so 
as  to  give  it  shape  and  consistency.  It  almost  deserves  the 
name  of  a  system.  If  it  were  as  new  as  it  is  powerful  it  would 
revolutionize  the  world  ;  as  it  is,  it  only  reinforces  the  old 
teaching,  as  well  as  the  old  methods,  of  apostolic  evangelism. 

Mr.  Moody's  work  and  character  are  in  competent  hands. 
Mr.  Daniels  seems  called  of  God  to  complete,  extend,  and 
perpetuate  this  work  of  the    great  evangelist,  i  than  is 


6  Introduction. 

Mr.  Moody  called  to  his  part  of  the  ultimate  result  :  his  book, 
and  especially  this  one,  must  live  and  repeat  the  good  news 
to  several  generations  and  to  many  millions. 

A  portion  of  the  book  is  devoted  to  some  of  the  noble 
Workers  that  have  grown  out  of  this  great  movement.  Of 
course  there  is  but  one  Moody  ;  but  it  is  heroic  to  stand  in 
one's  lot  and  do  one's  best.  This  service  God  is  honoring. 
A  sorrowful  interest  will  be  added  to  the  work  by  the  sad 
fate  of  Mr.  P.  P.  Bliss,  and  the  melody  of  his  music  will  linger 
among  the  devout  long  after  his  memory  has  faded  away. 

A  few  pages  are  given  to  another  work  of  absorbing  in- 
terest, that  is  destined  to  increase  until  it  fills  the  whole 
earth — that  work  is  the  Christian  Temperance  movement, 
started  and  being  carried  forward  principally  by  women,  who 
have  the  sympathy  to  feel  for  these  lost  multitudes,  and  the 
courage  to  undertake  their  recovery.  In  the  foreground  of 
this  picture  is  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard.  Her  great  gifts  as  a 
speaker,  her  abilities  on'  the  platform,  her  zeal  in  this  work 
among  drunken  men  and  abandoned  women,  her  maturing 
experience,  and  her  association  with  Mr.  Moody  in  directing 
this  especial  branch  of  the  Revival,  all  combine  to  give  this 
work  increased  promise  of  permanency,  and  add  to  this  vol- 
ume an,  interest  and  attractiveness  not  otherwise  secured. 

This  book,  put  forth  as  an  incarnation  of  the  Gospel  of 
Mercy  in  every-day  life,  goes  to  the  millions  who  need  it,  and 
we  bespeak  for  it  the  attention  of  the  whole  people. 

C.  H.  Fowler. 
Office  ok  The  Christian  Advocate, 
New  York,  April  10,  1877. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction,  by  Rev.  C.  H.  Fowler,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


PART  I. 
Life  and  Labors  <>f  I).  L.  Moody 

Pago 


Page 


Early  Lifo — Northfield  ami  Boston  10 

Chicago— Sunday-school  Work...  18 
Mr.  Moody  with  the  Young  Men's 

Christian  Association 31 

Mr.  Moody's  Bible  Work 38 


Moody  and  Sankey  in  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland 41 

Brooklyn,      Philadelphia,     and 

New'  York 50 

Chicago  and  Boston 55 


PART  II. 

Bible  Portraits. 


The  Prophet  "Daniel 65 

Major-General  Naaman 91 

Mcphiboshetb 97 

The  Penitent  Thief. 102 

The  Character  of  Lot 115 

Cornelius 123 

The  Prodigal  Son 126 

Noah 138 

Abraham 146 

Elijah 153 

Jacob 160 

Joshua 166 

The  Pharisee  and  tho  Publican. . .  177 


John  the  Baptist 184 

Barabhas 188 

The  Worldly  Wise  Man 190 

The  Incurables DC 


The  Widow  of  Nain 

The  Good  Samaritan 

Saul  of  Tarsus 

Some  Blind  Men 

How  to  <  Jure  it  Blind  Man 

The  Lame  Man  Healed 

Simon  Petor 

Zaeehcus 'J47 

Mary  of  Bethany 250 


206 

•JOS. 

217 
227 
283 
286 
241 


PART  III. 
Outlines  of  Bible  Doctrine. 


Mr.  Moody's  Theology 

God — 

His  Love 

His  Power 

Jesus  Christ:  His  Character  and 
Offices — 

Prophecies  Concerning 

Announcement  of  his  Birth.. 

The  Divinity  of  Christ 

What  Think  Ye  of  Christ  I... 

Jesus  the  Messiah 

Temptations  of  Christ 


L'.V. 


262 

273 


■-'77 

■J  sO 

281 

■_'- 1 

288 

I] 


Jesus  Christ — (Continued.) 

Miracles  of  Christ 292 

Christ  the  Refuge 994 

The  Bedeemer 297 

The  Resurrectionwrf Christ...  312 

Jesus  the  Anointed  315 

Christ  the  Saviour 388 

t  Ihriat  the  Keeper 884 

Christ  the  Light 886 

The  G 1  Shepherd 887 

Seeking  the  Lost  Sheep 888 

The  Restorer 344 


Contexts. 


Outlines  of  Bible  Doctrine — {Continued.) 


Page 

Jests  Christ — (Continued.) 

Plenty  and  Safety  with  Christ.  350 
Feeding   the  Multitude— The 

Bread  of  Life 351 

The  Water  of  Life 355 

How  to  Find  the  Thirsty  Ones  359 

The  Light  of  the  World 360 

The  Resurrection  and  the  Life  362 

The  Holy  Spirit— 

The  Person  ofthe  Holy  Ghost.  365 

The  Work  of  the  Spirit 372 

Conviction 374 

Our  Leader 376 

A  Witness  for  Christ 380 

Indwelling  ofthe  Holy  Spirit.  383 

Regeneration 385 

Fruits  of  the  Spirit 3oo 

The  Inspbrer  of  Prophecy  and 
Prayer 394 


Page 

The  Holy  Spirit — (Continued.) 

The  Sword  of  the  Spirit .    395 

Baptism  ofthe  Holy  Spirit  for 

Service 396 

Emblems  of  the  Spirit 4o:> 

Grieving  the  Holy  Spirit 4'»4 

The  Sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  4<>7 

Sin  and  Salvation — 

Man  a  Failure 416 

"Tckel" 414 

Law  and  Grace 421 

Free  Salvation 426 

Righteousness  First 430 

Sermon  to  Fallen  Women 433 

How  to  he  Saved 4-12 

Last  Things — 

Heaven 448 

Hell 457 

The  Return  of  our  Lord 467 


PART  IV. 
Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers. 


"Bishop"  Moody 479 

J™  D.  Sankey. 482 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  P.  P.  Bliss 489 

Memorial  Services ■ 491 

1).  W.  Whittle 495 

Charles  M.  Morton 500 


Miss  Emelinc  Drver 503 

Rev.  W.  J.  Erdman 505 

Major  J.  11.  Cole 506 

Miss  Frances  F.  Willard,  A.M... .   508 

George  C.  Stebbins 510 

Charles  W.  Sawyer 511 


PART  Y. 

The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival. 

A  New  Departure 513  I  The  Lost  One  Found 518 

The  Devil  Cast  Out 516  I  "  Reconstructed  Men  " 523 


111  ii^ti'ktioi\$. 


Portrait  or  D.  L.  Moody Frontispiece. 

The  Old  Farm  House To  face  page    9 

View  from  the  Old  Homestead "  11 

Mr.  Moody's  Tabernacle,  Chicago 21 

Free  Church  Assembly  Hall,  Edinburgh "  43 

Mi:.  Moooy  Preaching  in  the  Opera  House,  Haymarket.  .  "  49 

Exterior  of  Cambekwell  Hali 50 

Depot  Church,  Philadelphia 52 

Interior  of  Chicago  Taijeknaci.e "  253 

Boston  Tabernacle "  365 

Portrait  of  Ira   1).  Sankey "  482 

Portrait?  or  Mi:,  and  Mrs.   I'.   P.  Bliss 489 


moody: 

HIS  WORDS,  WORK.  AND  WORKERS. 


PART  I. 
LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  I).  L.  MOODY. 


.qjjrT  is  well  known  that  Air.  Moody  has  always  opposed 
^  the  publication  of  his  life,  for  which  he  privately  gives 
this  reason  : — 

"  Some  time  ago  God  gave  me  a  great  blessing,  and  after 
that  I  felt  as  if  I  must  walk  very  softly  or  else  I  should  lose 
it.  Of  myself,  I  felt  that  I  amounted  to  nothing,  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  I  must  keep  myself  out  of  sight.  There 
are  so  many  men  and  women  who  are  getting  people  to  write 
their  lives,  just  to  make  themselves  famous,  that  I  determined 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  such  vanity." 

This  impression,  which  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  Mr. 
Moody  should  take  no  steps  towards  publishing  his  own  life, 
is  by  no  means  a  commandment  against  the  doing  of  that 
work  by  others.  It  is  the  privilege  of  those  who  are  asked 
to  accept  him  as  a  religious  teacher  to  impure  into  the  steps 
by  which  he  has  come  to  this  greatness  and  success  :  his  life 
and  record  form  a  prominent  part  of  the  Christian  literature 
of  the  time,  and  are  the  rightful  possession  of  the  Church 
and  the  world.  God  has  taken  this  man  away  from  himself, 
and  given  him  to  his  people  as  a  leader  and  helper  in  his 
name  ;  this  sketch  of  the  life  of  the  great  lay  evangelist  is, 
therefore,  a  rightful  contribution  to  current  Christian  biog- 
1* 


io        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

raphy;  especially  as  many  of  the  fads  and  incidents  therein 
have  been  gathered  from  his  own  frequent  public  references 
to  himself  and  the  various  members  of  his  household;  and 
from  a  former  work  by  the  same  hand,  the  materials  for  which 
were  largely  furnished  by  Mr.  Moody's  nearest  relatives,  and 
his  co-workers,  both  in  America  and  Great  Britain. 

EARLY   LIFE— NORTHFIELD    AND   BOSTON. 

Of  the  nine  children  born  to  Edwin,  and  Betsy  Holton 
Moody — seven  sons  and  two  daughters — Dwight  Lyman 
is  the  sixth;  born  on  the  fifth  day  of  February,  1837,  in  the 
town  of  Northfield,  Massachusetts.  His  mother,  a  woman  of 
the  old  heroic  blood  of  New  England,  is  a  descendant,  in  the 
fifth  generation,  from  William  Holton,  one  of  the  first  settlers 
of  the  plantation  of  Northfield,  which  was  purchased  of  the 
Indians  in  1673,  and  laid  out  by  a  committee  of  the  General 
Council  of  Massachusetts,  of  which  committee  the  said  Holton 
was  a  member. 

Mrs.  Moody,  still  active  and  happy  under  the  burden  of 
seventy  winters,  visited  her  son  during  the  great  revival  in 
New  York,  where  her  force  of  character  and  admirable  man- 
ners were  most  highly  appreciated.  "Ah,  my  friend,"  said 
Rev.  Dr.  Cuyler  to  Mr.  Moody,  "  it  is  easy  enough  to  see 
where  you  got  your  vim  and  your  hard  common  sense." 

When  Dwight  was  a  child  of  four  years  of  age  his  father 
suddenly  died,  leaving  for  the  support  of  his  widow  and  her 
seven  children,  of  whom  the  oldest  was  but  thirteen  years  of 
age,  nothing  but  a  little  house  on  the  mountain  side,  with  an 
acre  or  two  of  land,  and  even  this  encumbered  with  debt. 

A  month  after  her  husband's  death  another  boy  and  girl 
were  born.  Some  of  her  worldly-wise  neighbors  advised  her 
to  give  away  or  bind  out  her  children,  all  except  the  twin 
babies;  but  this  she  would  not  do.  God.  had  endowed  her 
with  unusual  strength,  both  of  body  and  mind,  and  with  a 
cheerful  courage  and  a  habit  of  looking  on  the  bright  side, 
as  well  as  with  humble  trust  in   Dim  who  is  the  Father  of  the 


Life  and  Labors  of  d.  l.  Moody.  u 

fatherless,  and  the  God  of  the  widow,  she  bravely  lifted  her 
burden  of  poverty  and  toil,  and  carried  it  patiently  and  hope- 
fully through  the  long  years,  until  her  sons  became  her  for- 
tune, as  they  had  been  her  burden  and  her  care.  The  old- 
fashioned  mansion  of  the  Moody  estate,  with  its  ample  barns 
and  broad  acres,  is  the  result  of  patient  and  frugal  toil  through 
the  days  of  small  things,  as  well  as  of  the  larger  enterprise  of 
her  sons  grown  to  man's  estate.  Mr.  Moody  himself  has 
done  much  to  improve  and  beautify  the  old  homestead,  and 
near  by  has  built  himself  a  beautiful  though  unpretentious 
home,  where  in  the  summer  time,  when  his  annual  revival 
campaigns  are  over,  he  is  transformed  into  a  quiet-looking 
farmer;  giving  enthusiastic  attention  to  fine  blooded  stock, 
and  new  methods  of  culture  and  tillage;  though  spending 
a  large  proportion  of  his  time  with  distinguished  guests  from 
England  and  America,  who,  in  large  numbers,  delight  to  visit 
him  in  his  breezy  mountain  home. 

The  Moodys  were  Unitarians,  and,  as  fast  as  the  children 
were  old  enough,  they  were  sent  to  the  Church  of  that  order 
in  the  village  a  mile  away,  where  the  Rev.  Mr.  Everett  was 
pastor.  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  was 
before  the  time  of  those  notable  heresies  with  which  the  Uni- 
tarian name  in  these  days  is  so  often  associated.  Pastor 
Everett  believed  in  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God,  in  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Saviour  of  all  sinners  who 
would  try  to  save  themselves.  He  also  believed  in  the  Sab- 
bath, and  in  the  Church  and  its  sacraments.  The  Apostles' 
Creed  would,  doubtless,  have  been  acceptable  to  him  as  a 
fair  statement  of  Christian  theology;  but  that  other  creed, 
named  after  Saint  Athanasius,  would  have  given  him  no  lit- 
tle trouble. 

This  man  was  a  faithful  friend  to  the  widow  and  her  large 
family  of  little  children.  He  would  visit  them  betimes,  cheer 
them  up  with  some  pleasant  words,  settle  quarrels  among  the 
boys,  give  the  little  ones  a  bright  piece  of  silver  all  around, 
and  bid  the  mother  keep  on  praying;  telling  her  Coil  would 
never  forget  her  labor  of  love.     At  one   time   he  took  little 


i2       Moody  :  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

Dwight  into  his  family  to  do  errands  and  go  to  school — a  work 
of  charitv  which,  by  all  accounts,  must  have  sorely  tried  his 
patience.  The  good  man  was  often  perplexed  what  to  do  with 
the  boy,  being  forced  to  laugh  at  his  pranks  in  spite  of  him- 
self, when  he  felt  his  duty  to  be  stern  and  severe. 

But  his  chief  instructor  in  religion,  as  well  as  in  every 
thing  else,  was  his  mother.  Great  sorrow  and  years  of  toil 
and  privation  had  drawn  her  heart  very  close  to  the  Saviour, 
and  when  the  care  of  her  great  family  of  little  children  grew 
so  heavy  as  almost  to  overwhelm  her,  she  learned  to  cast  her 
burden  on  the  Lord.  Sometimes,  when  the  boys  were  quar- 
relsome and  rebellious,  and  the  household  was  in  utter  con- 
fusion, she  would  go  away  to  her  own  room  and  pray  for 
wisdom  and  patience.  "And  when  I  would  come  back," 
said  she,  "  they  would  all  be  good  children  again." 

At  the  table  the  mother  would  repeat  a  text  of  Scripture 
or  a  verse  of  a  hymn,  and  the  children  would  say  it  in  chorus 
after  her.  That  table,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  was  not  al- 
ways very  well  supplied;  but  the  mother,  though  toiling  day 
and  night  to  feed  and  clothe  her  children,  and  not  always 
knowing  to-day  where  the  food  was  to  come  from  for  to- 
morrow, kept  up  a  brave  heart  and  wore  a  cheerful  face. 
The  shadow  of  poverty  and  death  was  over  them,  but  the 
love  of  the  great  Father  above,  and  of  the  godly  mother  be- 
low, kept  the  little  ones  from  want  and  gloom,  and  made  their 
home  a  happy  one  in  spite  of  all  their  misfortunes. 

Among  the  rich  inheritances  of  this  poor  boy  were  a  vigor- 
ous constitution,  boundless  ambition  and  animal  spirits,  a 
will  strong  enough  to  break  down  all  opposition,  and  pride 
which  was  all  the  time  leading  him  to  undertake  things  far 
beyond  his  years. 

His  mother  says,  "  He  used  to  think  himself  a  man  when  he 
was  only  a  boy." 

He  would  usually  obey  his  mother,  but  she  is  almost  the 
only  person  in  all  the  world  who  was  ever  able  to  manage  him. 
There  was  nothing  vicious  in  his  disposition:  he  was  ungov- 
ernable chiefly  because  he  was  a  natural  leader  himself. 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  13 

In  the  "Gospel  Hymns  and  Sacred  Songs '*  there  is  a  hymn 
commencing 

"  Free  from  the  law,  <>  happy  condition, " 

which  the  English  brethren  used  to  say  was  a  good  descrip- 
tion of  Mr.  Moody  himself,  so  absolutely  impossible  did  they 
find  it  to  control  him  by  any  law  of  fashion,  or  policy,  or  even 
of  churchly  tradition.  They  always  found  his  face  set  as  a 
flint  in  the  direction  of  what  he  felt  to  be  his  duty.  One  of 
his  faithful  co-workers,  by  way  of  apology  for  his  inexpressible 
firmness,  said:  "Ah,  well,  1  suppose  people  in  Elijah's  time 
used  to  think  him  just  as  stubborn  and  unmanageable  as  we 
think  Mr.  Moody  to  be."  That  intensity  of  will,  whose  nat- 
ural basis  was  pride,  being  transformed  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
found  a  new  basis  in  conscience. 

During  his  boyhood  young  Moody  went  through  as  many 
as  a  dozen  terms  at  the  little  district  school,  but  not  much  of 
its  learning  ever  accumulated  in  him.  A  little  reading — very 
little — still  less  of  spelling,  the  simple  rules  of  arithmetic,  a 
trifle  of  geography,  and  the  art  of  "speaking  pieces/'  com- 
prised the  sum  total  of  his  scholastic  attainments  previous  to 
his  seventeenth  year. 

»     In  his  sermon  on   "  \.d\v  versus  Grace,"   Mr.  Moody  gives 
this  account  of  himself  as  a  scholar: — 

"  At  the  school  I  used  to  go  to  when  I  was  a  boy,  we  had  a 
teacher  who  believed  in  governing  by  law.  He  used  to 
keep  a  rattan  in  his  desk,  and  my  back  tingles  now  (shrug- 
ging his  shoulders)  as  I  think  of  it.  But  after  awhile  the 
notion  got  abroad  among  the  people  that  a  school  might  be 
governed  by  love,  and  the  district  was  divided  into  what  1 
might  call  the  law  party,  and  the  grace  party;  the  law  party 
standing  by  the  old  schoolmaster,  with  his  rattan,  and  the 
grace  party  wanting  a  teacher  who  could  get  along  without 
punishing  so  much. 

"  After  awhile  the  grace  party  got  the  upper  hand,  turned 
out  the  old  master,  ami  hired  a  young  lady  to  take  his  place. 
We  all  understood  that  there  was  to  be  no  rattan  that  winter, 


14        Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  we  looked  forward  to  having  the  jolliest  kind  of  a 
time.  On  the  first  morning  the  new  teacher,  whom  I  will  call 
Miss  Grace,  opened  the  school  with  reading  out  of  the  Bible, 
and  prayer.  That  was  a  new  thing,  and  we  didn't  quite  know 
what  to  make  of  it.  She  told  us  she  didn't  mean  to  keep 
order  by  punishment,  but  she  hoped  we  would  all  be  good 
children,  for  her  sake  as  well  as  our  own.  This  made  us  a  lit- 
tle ashamed  of  the  mischief  we  had  meant  to  do,  and  every 
thing  went  on  pretty  well  for  a  few  days;  but  pretty  soon  I 
broke  one  of  the  rules,  and  Miss  Grace  said  I  was  to  stop 
that  night  after  school.  Now  for  the  old  rattan,  said  I  to 
myself;  it's  coming  now,  after  all.  But  when  the  scholars 
were  all  gone  she  came  and  sat  down  by  me,  and  told  me 
how  sorry  she  was  that  I,  who  was  one  of  the  biggest  boys, 
and  might  help  her  so  much,  was  setting  such  a  bad  example 
to  others,  and  making  it  so  hard  for  her  to  get  along  with 
them.  She  said  she  loved  us,  and  wanted  to  help  us,  and  if 
we  loved  her  we  would  obey  her,  and  then  every  thing  would 
go  on  well.  There  were  tears  in  her  eyes  as  she  said  this, 
and  I  didn't  know  what  to  make  of  it,  for  no  teacher  had 
ever  talked  that  way  to  me  before.  I  began  to  feel  ashamed 
of  myself  for  being  so  mean  to  any  one  who  was  so  kind  ;  and 
after  that  she  didn't  have  any  more  trouble  with  me,  nor  with 
any  of  the  other  scholars,  either.  She  just  took  us  out  from 
under  the  Law  and  put  us  under  Grace." 

Dwight's  last  term  of  school  was  in  the  winter  of  his  seven- 
teenth year,  when  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  applied  him- 
self faithfully  to  study;  but  it  was  too  late  for  him  to  become 
a  scholar.  The  time  had  come  when  he  felt  called  to  the 
hard  work  of  life,  and  now  he  must  go  out  and  boldly  face 
the  world.  He  had  muscles  like  steel,  and  the  courage  of  a 
young  lion.  He  held  the  place  of  leader  among  the  boys  of 
his  school,  and  as  he  looked  out  upon  the  world  he  had  no 
other  thought  than  that  he  was  to  be  a  leader  every-where 
else.  To  obey  or  follow  was  not  in  him.  In  every  emer- 
gency, a  bold  push  aided  by  ready  wit  carried  him  over  diffi- 
culties which   would   have  seemed   impassable  to  a  wiser  but 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  15 

• 

less  courageous  spirit.  It-  is  said  of  him  that  if  he  came  to  a 
hard  word  in  reading  which  he  could  not  readily  pronounce, 
he  would  not  stoj)  and  try  to  spell  it  out,  but  make  a  rough 
guess  what  it  might  be  from  the  sense  of  the  passage,  and 
pronounce  at  it ;  or,  if  it  was  altogether  out  of  his  reach,  he 
would  invent  a  word  which  he  thought  might  answer  the 
purpose,  and  then  read  on  all  the  faster,  by  way  of  hiding  his 
mistake.  % 

The  winter  school  being  over,  young  Moody  started  for 
Boston,  where  his  uncles,  Messrs.  Samuel  and  Lemuel  Holton, 
gave  him  a  situation  as  salesman  in  their  boot  and  shoe  store; 
and  being  fearful  lest  the  young  man  should  go  to  ruin  in  the 
great  city  they  found  a  home  for  him  in  a  Christian  family, 
insisted  on  his  regular  attendance  at  the  Mount  Vernon 
Congregational  Church  and  Sunday-school,  and  made  him 
promise  not  to  be  out  at  night  without  their  knowing  where 
he  was. 

It  may  be  imagined  that  his  country  life  and  his  misuse  of 
the  country  school  had  not  fitted  him  to  shine  in  the  city. 
His  pride  and  poverty  kept  him  from  feeling  at  home  among 
the  well-bred,  well-dressed  people  to  whom  he  was  introduced, 
and  for  a  time  he  was  unhappy;  but  he  steadily  held  to  his 
purpose  of  conquering  a  place  for  himself  high  up  in  the  cir- 
cles of  wealth  and  influence,  feeling  sure  of  ultimate  success, 
tor  which  he  labored  night  and  day. 

He  was  a  sharp  observer  of  human  nature,  quick  to  take 
advantage  of  every  thing  in  his  favor,  always  on  the  alert,  and 
ready  for  any  emergency.  His  pride  did  not  admit  of  his 
asking  too  many  questions,  and.  as  the  business  was  new  to 
him,  he  was  often  in  doubt  about  prices  and  qualities;  but 
what  he  lacked  in  knowledge  he  would  make  up  in  shrewd 
guessing.  His  idea  of  business  was  a  struggle  with  mankind, 
out  of  which  the  hardest  heads  and  the  sharpest  wits  were 
sure  to  come  with  the  largest  influence  and  the  longest  purse. 
The  quiet  manners  of  his  uncles  he  could  never  learn,  net- 
did  he  desire  to  learn  them.  He  went  about  his  duties  in 
the   store  in   much    the  same  wav  as   he   would  have   swung   a 


16       Moody:  ins  Words — Work — Workers. 

scythe  in  a  field  of  tangled  clover,  or  broken  a  yoke  of  wild 
steers.  If  any  one  offended  his  sense  of  honor  he  would 
fly  into  fury  at  once  ;  but  the  tempest  of  passion  soon 
passed  by. 

His  habit  of  striking  out  right  and  left  sometimes  raised  an 
uproar  in  the  whole  establishment  ;  and  there  was  no  little 
difficulty  in  keeping  the  peace.  It  was  difficult  for  him  to 
get  rid  of  the  notion  that  he  must  fight  his  way  through  the 
world  ;  and,  a  long  time  afterward,  when  he  became  famous 
as  a  Christian  teacher  and  leader,  he  seemed  to  enjoy  the 
service  of  the  Lord  all  the  more  because,  at  the  same  time,  he 
could  be  valiantly  fighting  the  devil. 

Young  Moody  attended  church  per  force  of  his  agreement, 
caring  little  for  what  was  said  or  sung.  He  says  :  "  When  I 
first  went  to  Boston  my  employers  made  me  go  to  church.  I 
used  to  go  and  sit  in  the  gallery,  and  very  often  fall  asleep. 
One  day,  while  I  was  having  a  nap  under  the  sermon,  I  felt 
somebody  poking  me  in  the  ribs,  and  when  I  looked  up  there 
was  one  of  the  deacons,  who  had  come  to  wake  me,  and  was 
pointing  with  his  finger  at  the  minister,  as  much  as  to  say, 
'Attend  to  the  preaching!.'  I  felt  as  if  every  body  in  the 
church  was  looking  at  me  ;  but  I  didn't  know  what  else  to  do, 
unless  I  gave  attention  to  the  sermon,  so  I  began  to  listen  to 
Dr.  Kirk,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  felt  as  if  he  were 
preaching  altogether  at  me." 

Under  the  plain  and  forcible  sermons  of  the  Mount  Vernon 
Church  pastor,  who  was  a  very  prince  among  preachers,  his 
hard  heart  began  to  soften.  His  Sunday-school  teacher  also 
took  a  Christian  interest  in  him,  and  encouraged  him  to  seek 
the  Lord,  which,  without  any  right  knowledge  of  the  way  of 
life,  he  blindly  began  to  do.  There  was  no  such  sudden  and 
complete  transformation  in  his  outward  life  as  is  sometimes 
wrought  by  saving  grace  ;  but  he  had  evidently  changed  his 
direction,  or,  as  he  would  say,  had  been  converted  ;  and  so 
sturdily  did  he  resist  the  devil,  and  so  hopefully  did  he  get 
up  and  go  on  again  whenever  that  enemy  managed  to  trip 
him,  that  a  (u\v  of  his  friends  ventured  to  indulge  a  hope  that 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  \j 

he  was  one  of  the  elect,  though  there  were  still  a  good  many 
traces  of  the  old  Adam  in  him. 

One  of  his  first  steps  after  his  conversion  was  to  apply  for 
admission  to  the  Mount  Vernon  Church;  but  so  little  reason 
was  he  able  to  give  of  the  hope  that  was  in  him,  that  the 
committee  of  the  Church  before  whom  he  was  examined  did 
not  feel  justified  in  receiving  him. 

Concerning  his  experience  in  passing  from  death  unto  life, 
Mr.  Moody  once  said:  "I  used  to  have  a  terrible  habit  of 
swearing.  Whenever  I  would  get  mad  out  would  come  the 
oaths;  but  after  I  gave  my  heart  to  Christ  he  took  the  swear- 
ing all  away,  so  that  I  did  not  have  the  least  disposition  to 
take  God's  name  in  vain."  Concerning  his  relations  to  the 
Mount  Vernon  Church,  in  Boston,  he  says,  "When  I  first  be- 
came a  Christian  I  tried  to  join  the  Church,  but  they  wouldn't 
have  me,  because  they  didn't  believe  i  was  really  converted." 
After  being  kept  on  a  kind  of  probation  for  nearly  a  year, 
with  a  committee  specially  appointed  to  watch  over  and 
help  him,  he  made  another  application  for  membership,  and 
at  the  May  communion,  in  1856,  he  was  received.  Dur- 
ing the  few  months  of  his  connection  with  this  Church  he 
gave  no  sign  of  the  great  tilings  which  were  in  him.  He  did, 
indeed,  venture  to  express  himself  a  few  times  in  the  Church 
prayer-meeting,  and  in  some  little  mission  meetings  in  North- 
street,  but  with  so  little  acceptance  that  a  member  of  the 
Church  (ailed  upon  his  uncle,  and  desired  him  to  advise  the 
young  convert  to  hold  his  peace.  But  Mr.  Holton  replied 
that  he  was  glad  the  young  man  had  grace  and  courage 
enough  to  profess  his  faith  in  Christ,  and  declined  to  put  a 
straw  in  his  way. 

After  Mr.  Moody  had  become  somewhat  famous  in  Chi- 
cago as  a  Christian  worker,  an  old  member  of  the  Mount 
Vernon  Church,  visiting  a  friend  at  the  West,  spoke  slight- 
ingly of  the  religious  life  of  that  section  of  the  country,  be- 
cause such  a  man  as  Moody  was  allowed  such  prominence  in 
it,  saying,  "When  we  had  him  in  our  Church  we  wouldn't  let 
him  speak  in  our  prayer-meetings." 


i8       Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

To  the  same  purpose  was  the  remark  of  his  pastor,  Dr. 
Kirk,  who  some  years  afterward  was  in  Chicago  attending  the 
anniversary  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions.  While  there  he  was  entertained  by  his  for- 
mer unpromising  parishioner,  and  assisted  him  in  his  pulpit 
labors  for  nearly  a  week  with  excellent  results.  On  his  re- 
turn to  Boston  he  called  upon  Mr.  Holton,  and  said  : — 

"  I  told  our  people  last  night  that  we  ought  to  be  ashamed 
of  ourselves.  There  is  that  young  Moody,  who  we  thought 
did  not  know  enough  to  be  in  our  Church,  exerting  a  greater 
influence  for  Christ  than  any  other  man  in  the  great  North- 
west." 

CHICAGO— SUNDAY-SCHOOL   WORK. 

In  September,  1856,  young  Moody,  contrary  to  the  wishes 
of  his  mother,  struck  out  for  the  West,  where  there  would  be 
room  for  such  a  caged  bird  as  he  felt  himself  to  be,  and 
where  fortunes  were  waiting  for  those  who  had  the  genius  to 
find  them.  His  first  employer  in  Chicago,  Mr.  Wiswell,  who 
received  him  with  great  misgivings  on  account  of  his  blunt 
speech  and  impetuous  manners,  says :  "  His  ambition  made 
him  anxious  to  lay  up  money  ;  his  personal  habits  were  exact 
and  economical;  as  a  salesman  he  was  the  same  zealous  and 
tireless  worker  that  he  afterward  became  in  religion." 

One  of  his  fellow-clerks  says  of  him  :  "  Moody  was  a  first- 
rate  salesman.  It  was  his  pride  to  make  his  column  foot  up 
the  largest  of  any  on  the  books,  not  only  in  the  way  of  sales, 
but  also  of  profits.  He  took  delight  in  dealing  with  people 
who  made  great  show  of  smartness  and  cunning,  and  who 
thought  themselves  uncommonly  wise  in  matters  of  trade,  so 
that  it  became  the  established  custom  in  the  house,  when 
these  unmanageable  customers  came,  to  turn  them  over  to 
Moody." 

On  his  arrival  in  Chicago  he  joined  the  Plymouth  Congre- 
gational Church,  of  which  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Roy  was  pastor, 
and  at  once  commenced  his  career  as  a  home  missionary. 
This  he  did  partly  because  he  was  lonesome  and  uneasy  on 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  19 

the  Sabbath,  and  felt  the  necessity  of  having  something  to 
keep  him  busy. 

His  first  effort  was  to  hire  four  pews  in  Plymouth  Church, 
which  he  kept  full  of  young  men  every  Sunday.  He  also 
opened  his  mouth  in  speech  and  prayer  at  the  social  meet- 
ings, with  a  freedom  which,  even  in  the  West,  soon  brought 
him  into  trouble  again.  There  was  frequently  a  pungency 
in  his  exhortations  which  his  brethren  did  not  altogether 
relish.  Sometimes  in  his  prayers  he  would  express  opinions 
to  the  Lord  concerning  them  which  were  by  no  means  flat- 
tering, and  it  was  not  long  before  he  received  the  same  fa- 
therly advice  which  had  been  given  him  in  Boston — to  the 
effect  that  he  should  leave  the  speaking  and  praying  to  those 
who  could  do  it  better. 

It  seems  that  no  one  Church  could  furnish  him  enough  to 
do;  therefore  he  began  to  attend  a  Sunday  morning  class  in 
the  First  Methodist  Church.  Here  he  found  congenial  fel- 
lowship and  labor  with  its  Mission  Band,  a  company  of  young 
men  who  used  to  visit  the  hotels,  saloons,  etc.,  etc.,  distrib- 
uting tracts  and  inviting  people  to  attend  divine  service  ;  and 
on  Sunday  mornings  this  sturdy  young  Congregationalist 
might  be  seen  standing  at  the  door  of  a  Methodist  Church, 
at  an  hour  when  there  was  no  meeting  in  his  own,  eagerly 
giving  out  printed  and  verbal  invitations  to  the  passers-by  to 
join  in  the  worship  there. 

His  success  with  the  four  pews  in  the  little  church  gave 
him  the  clue  to  a  line  of  work  in  which  he  afterward  became 
famous.  He  was  interested  in  Sunday-schools;  but  the 
position  of  scholar  was  too  quiet  for  him,  and  for  that  of 
teacher  he  was  not  very  well  qualified  ;  as  a  recruiting  officer, 
however,  he  was  a  marvel.  Finding,  in  his  missionary  ex- 
plorations, a  little  Sunday-school  in  North  Wells-street,  he 
offered  to  take  a  cla>s  in  it.  The  superintendent  replied  that 
he  could  find  plenty  of  teachers,  and  had.  indeed,  almost  as 
many  teachers  as  pupils;  but  offered  him  the  privilege  of 
teaching  any  new  scholars  he  might  bring.  The  next  Sun- 
day, when  the  school  opened,  the  new  teacher  appeared,  fol- 


20       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

lowed  by  eighteen  bare-headed,  barefooted,  ragged,  dirty 
urchins,  whom  he  had  brought  to  make  a  class  i'or  himself  ; 
but  finding  that  he  could  gather  a  class  more  successfully 
than  he  could  teach  one,  he  turned  these  recruits  over  to 
other  teachers,  and  went  out  on  the  streets  again  to  find  and 
bring  in  more. 

It  was  not  long  before  young  Moody  projected  a  Sunday- 
school  of  his  own.  Finding  a  deserted  saloon  in  one  of  the 
worst  portions  of  the  city,  he  rented  it  for  his  school  on 
Sunday,  and  an  occasional  service  on  week  evenings.  The 
region  in  which  this  school  was  opened  may  be  understood 
from  the  fact  that,  within  sight  and  hearing  of  the  old  Market- 
house,  near  by,  there  were  about  two  hundred  drinking  and 
gambling  dens.  The  streets  swarmed  with  young  barbarians, 
just  the  kind  of  scholars  he  wanted  :  bad  women,  and  worse 
men,  falling  through  various  grades  of  low  society,  found  their 
lowest  level  here.  The  place  was  proverbially  dangerous  for 
any  decent  person  to  walk  in  after  nightfall.  It  was  not  long 
before  Mr.  Moody  was  a  prominent  and  well-known  person 
on  "  The  Sands,"  as  this  region  was  called,  and  having  made 
himself  the  friend  of  the  street  Arabs,  he  coaxed  them  to 
attend  his' school,  which  presently  outgrew  the  old  saloon, 
and  was  removed  to  the  hall  over  the  North  Market,  where, 
having  achieved  success  as  a  Sunday-school  scout,  young 
Moody  tried  his  hand  as  an  organizer,  in  which  direction,  as 
has  been  abundantly  proved,  he  possessed  remarkable  gifts. 

'•  Mr.  Moody  is  the  prince  of  chairmen,"  said  one  of  the 
English  critics,  in  speaking  of  his  admirable  management  of 
a  difficult  situation  at  a  large  public  meeting  ;  but  perhaps  he 
did  not  know  the  long  experience  and  thorough  training  of 
the  man,  which  commenced  with  the  management  of  a  crowd 
of  ragamuffins  on  Sunday  afternoons  in  the  old  North  Market 
Hall ;  where,  in  the  midst  of  confusion  that  would  have  driven 
a  less  hopeful  man  to  despair,  he  pursued  his  work  for  Christ. 
It  was  so  much  clear  gain  even  to  bring  these  waifs  together 
under  the  name  of  a  Sunday-school;  they  would  a1  least  hear 
a  few  words  out  of  the   Bible  ;   perhaps  they  would   learn   to 


Life  and  L vb< >rs  < >f  D.  L.  M< m >dy.  2r 

sing  a  few  hymns;  and,  if  the  speaker  had  good  lungs,  and 
was  not  modest  about  using  them,  they  might  hear  a  few 
words  of  good  advice.  The  following  picture  of  this  school, 
in  which  Mr.  Moody's  wonderful  talents  first  appeared,  and 
which  contains  the  record  of  his  first  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
r.  V.  Farwell,  whose  name  is  associated  with  Christian  work 
in  Chicago  and  the  whole  North-west,  is  copied,  by  per- 
mission, from  "  D.  L.  Moody  and  his  Work  :"  — 

It  was  not  long  before  the  increasing  crowd  needed  a  larger  room  ; 
and,  by  permission  ol  Mayor  Haines,  the  school  was  removed  to  the 
great  hall  over  the  old  North  Market.  This  hall  was  generally  usi  d 
on  Saturday  nights  for  a  dance  ;  and  it  took  most  of  the  forenoon  of 
Sunday  to  sweep  out  the  sawdust,  ana  wash  out  the  tobacco  and 
beer.  There  were  no  chairs  or  benches,  so  that  the  school  was  com- 
pelled to  stand,  or  else  sit  on  the  floor.  After  enduring  this  state  of 
things  for  some  time,  Moody  constituted  himself  a  committee  of 
finance,  and  started  to  raise  money  for  seating  the  place  ;  making 
his  collections  on  the  general  principle  of  asking  money  of  those 
whom  he  thought  most  likely  to  have  it. 

ng  those  to  whom  he  applied  was  Mr.  J.  V.  Farwell,  already 
a  prominent  man  of  business.  After  getting  his  money,  he  inquired 
what  Mr.  Farwell  was  doing  in  the  way  of  personal  work  forChrist  ; 
and,  finding  him  not  fully  occupied,  he  invited  him  over  to  see  his 
mission  school.  Knowing  the  quality  of  tin's  man,  whom  he  used  to 
meet  at  Sunday  morning  (lass  in  the  Methodist  Church  Block,  he 
determined  to  press  him  into  servii 

The  next   Sunday  Mr.   farwell  a]  ;  a  visitor  at  the  North 

Market  School.  The  scene  was  a  new  one.  All  his  previous  Sun- 
day-school notions  were  put  to  flight.  That  riotous  crowd  seemed 
toibe  following  the  example  of  the  Israelites  in  the  time  of  the 
Judges,  with  one  essential  difference — namely,  that  each  was  <!■ 
what  was  wrong  in  his  own  eyes,  with  the  evident  purpose  of  mis- 
chievous enjoyment.  The  seal-  had  nol  yet  arrived.  The  school 
was  leaning  up  against  the  walls,  and  scatten  d  over  the  floor  in  ever- 
varying  forms,  like  the  figures  in  the  kaleidoscope,  jumping,  turning 
somersaults,  sparring,  whistling,  talking  out  loud,  cryii  rs !" 

••  Black  your  boots  !  "  "  Have  a  shine,  mister?  '"--from  which,  stal 
confusion    they  were    occasional.!;,    rescued    by  a    Scripture   reading 
from   Mr.  Stillson,  or  a  song   from   Mr.  Trudeau,  or  a  speech  from 


22        Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Mr.  Moody,  only  to  relapse  again  into  clamor  and  uproar  before  the 
speaker  or  singer  was  fairly  through.  The  emotions  of  Mr.  Farwell, 
on  being  introduced  to  make  a  speech,  were  vivid  rather  than  pleas- 
ing. He  ventured  a  few  words,  and  only  a  few,  lest  he  should  weary 
the  patience  of  his  audience.  But  what  was  his  horror,  at  the  clcse 
of  his  remarks,  to  hear  himself  nominated  by  Moody  as  Superin- 
tendent of  the  North  Market  Mission  Sunday-school  !  and  before 
he  had  time  to  object,  the  school  had  elected  him  with  a  deafening 
hurrah. 

Many  honors  have  fallen  to  that  gentleman  since  that  day,  and 
none  of  them  ever  came  more  unexpectedly,  were  bestowed  more 
heartilv,  or  brought  with  them  more  embarrassment  ;  but  he  ac- 
cepted the  office  to  which  he  was  thus  suddenly  called,  and  entered 
at  once  upon  its  duties,  which  for  more  than  six  years  he  faithfully 
continued  to  perform.  The  outside  work  he  left  to  his  younger  part- 
ner, while  he  managed  the  internal  affairs  of  the  school  ;  sometimes 
adding  to  his  other  duties  those  of  treasurer— at  least,  so  far  as  to 
make  up  any  deficiency  in  the  funds. 

The  North  Market  Mission  speedily  became  popular,  partly  as  a 
means  of  grace,  and  partly  as  a  curiosity.  Before  this  time  no  mis- 
sion school  in  the  city  had  numbered  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty;  but  the  school  of  Moody,  Farwell,  and  Company  increased 
by  such  rapid  strides,  that  in  three  months  it  was  two  hundred 
strong  ;  in  six  months,  three  hundred  and  fifty  ;  and  within  a  year 
the  average  attendance  was  about  six  hundred  and  fifty,  with  an 
occasional  crowd  of  nearly  a  thousand.  It  is  estimated  that  about 
two  thousand  children  annually  passed  through  the  school  ;  many, 
of  course,  staying  but  a  few  weeks  ;  but  in  those  few  weeks  a  revela- 
tion opened  to  their  blinded  souls  which  changed  the  whole  course 
of  their  lives. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  all  these  children  came  to  Sunday- 
school  of  their  own  accord.  It  was  necessary  to  hunt  them  up  and 
bring  them  in,  one  by  one.  In  this  work  Moody  and  his  friend 
Stillson  were  steadily  engaged  every  evening  in  the  week,  from  the 
close  of  business  until  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  On  Sunday 
morning  also  they  made  a  grand  excursion  through  'The  Sands,  ' 
and  other  lost  regions  ;  from  which  they  would  return  bringing  their 
spoils  with  them,  in  the  shape  of  a  dozen  or  so  of  the  wild  boys  and 
girls  they  had  found. 

Not  content  with  capturing  such  children  as  he  might  find  in  the 
streets— whom  he  would  sometimes  chase  into  alleys  and  cellars,  up 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  23 

and  down  ladders,  and  over  piles  of  lumber,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  their  acquaintance — he  searched  for  them  in  their  homes, 
making   the  acquaintance   of  their  parents  also,  a  good   many  of 

whom  followed  their  children  into  the  mission  and  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven. 

At  such  times  he  often  came  across  a  Roman  Catholic  family,  and 
sometimes  narrowly  escaped  with  a  whole  head.  The  enraged  fa- 
ther, being  exceedingly  mad  at  Moody  for  coaxing  his  young  papists 
away,  on  seeing  his  beaming  face  and  sturdy  form  coming  up  stairs, 
or  in  at  the  door,  would  sometimes  seize  a  club  and  rush  at  him  with 
oaths  and  curses.  At  such  times  he  used  to  say  his  legs  were  his 
best  friends.  But  though  they  served  so  well  to  take  him  out  of  dan- 
ger, they  always  brought  him  back  into  it  again,  till  at  last  his 
patience  and  good-nature  conquered  all  opposition.  He  adopted  the 
Fabian  policy,  and  wore  out  his  adversaries  by  constant  light  skir- 
mishing, never  venturing  a  battle  ;  and  in  most  cases  this  method  was 
so  successful  that  he  not  only  overcame  his  enemies  and  captured 
their  children  for  his  mission,  but  generally  won  them  over  to  be  his 
friends. 

For  the  fifty  or  sixty  classes  there  was  no  lack  of  teachers.  Every 
Sabbath  the  school  was  visited  by  people  from  all  parts  of  the  city; 
attracted  by  its  growing  fame-  as  a  curiosity  of  grace  ;  and  from 
among  these  visitors  there  were  many  volunteers  for  work,  so  that 
every  post  was  filled.  But  the  management  of  such  a  band  of 
teachers  was  a  task  of  the  utmost  delicacy.  Coming  from  different 
Churches,  with  wide  variety  of  training  and  experience,  the  strict  uni- 
formity of  method  now  insisted  on  was  quite  out  of  the  question. 
In  those  days  there  was  no  International  Series  of  Sunday-school 
Lessons,  selected  and  wrought  out,  ready  to  the  teacher's  hand  ; 
but  there  was  a  book  with  which  every  teacher  and  scholar  was 
supplied — namely,  the  Newr  Testament  ;  and  this  was  the  one  point 
of  uniformity  in  the  school. 

The  New  Testament  was  Moody's  sheet-anchor.  It  held  his  craft 
from  drifting  into  any  serious  heresy,  and  kept  it  from  being  wrecked 
on  the  shoals  of  mere  amusement,  toward  which  so  many  schools  are 
carried  with  the  tide.  A  teacher  might  have  all  sorts  of  notions  of 
his  own  ;  but,  so  long  as  he  was  willing  to  teach  a  class  of  such  chil- 
dren out  of  the  New  Testament,  Moody  felt  certain  that  the  man  or 
woman  could  do  but  little  mischief,  while  the  book  was  certain  to  do 
much  good.  Thus,  with  a  great  and  irregular  band  of  teachers — 
Methodists,  Calvinists,  Liberals,  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  learned 


24         Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  unlearned — the  Gospel,  which  was  its  great  theme  and  inspira- 
tion, made  the  school  a  unit  and  held  it  close  to  Christ. 

Safe  in  the  New  Testament  as  the  common  text-hook,  the  school 
was  made  to  depend  for  its  further  compactness  upon  the  spirit  and 
order  of  each  individual  class.  Thus  the  fitness  of  the  teachers  for 
their  work  became  a  vital  question  ;  and  when  one  was  found  to  be  a 
failure — a  discovery  by  no  means  uncommon,  since  this  kind  of  teach- 
ing was  the  most  difficult  of  all — it  became  an  immediate  necessity 
that  he  should  be  removed.  Those  young  Arabs  of  the  street  were 
wild  as  colts,  and  cunning  as  foxes,  and  were  certain  to  run  away 
with  their  teacher  if  they  detected  any  weakness  in  him.  At  the  same 
time  it  would  have  been  a  painful  task  to  say  to  a  kind-hearted  Chris- 
tian, "  You  cannot  teach  ;•  you  must  make  way  for  another."  But 
Moody  and  his  privy  council  hit  upon  a  plan  which  brought  them 
through  every  such  difficulty.  Scholars  were  permitted,  on  applying 
to  the  superintendent,  to  remove  from  one  class  to  another;  and  be- 
ing quick  to  find  out  what  teachers  were  alive  and  well  up  to  their 
work,  they  applied  the  doctrine  of  natural  selection  in  a  manner  that 
would  have  made  Mr.  Darwin's  heart  glad  ;  for  it  notably  resulted 
in  "the  survival  of  the  fittest."  A  teacher  who  was  a  failure  would 
in  two  or  three  Sundays  be  left  without  a  class,  for  the  children  had 
the  instinct  of  bees  for  finding  out  where  the  honey  was  ;  and  so,  his 
occupation  being  gone,  he  would  quietly  and  regretfully  disappear, 
making  room  fur  a  more  fortunate  successor. 

The  history  of  the  North  Market  School  for  its  six  years  in  the  hall 
which  gave  it  its  name  is  full  of  the  proofs  of  God's  favor,  and  of  the 
faith  and  devotion  of  the  men  and  women  who  sustained  it.  The 
great  purpose  always  kept  in  view  was  the  salvation  of  souls.  To 
reach  this  result  every  possible  means  was  tried.  Mere  literary  and 
1  advantages  were  never  regarded  as  important.  A  free  evening 
school  was,  indeed,  established,  where  such  children  as  pleased  to 
attend  were  taught  a  little  reading  and  writing  ;  but  it  was  believed 
by  Moody  and  his  brethren  that  the  shortest  road  to  education  and 
refinement  was  the  road  which  led  to  the  cross  of  Christ.  The 
words  of  the  Saviour,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you,"  formed 
the  basis  of  its  hope  and  its  success.  If  he  could  make  Christians  of 
these  wild  boys  and  girls,  Moody  believed  they  would  make  gentle- 
men and  ladies  of  themselves.  With  this  thought  in  view  little  time 
was  spent  on  the  geography  or  archaeology  of  the  Bible,  but  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Son  of  God,  pure  and  simple,  was  impressed  upon  the 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  25 

minds  of  the  children  in  every  possible  way.  Thus,  while  other  kin- 
dred organizations  might  properly  be  called  Bible  schools,  the  North 
Market  Mission  was,  above  every  thing  else,  a  Gospel  school.  It 
naturally  took  this  direction  from  the  spirit  and  experience  of  its 
leader,  who  was  determined  to  know  nothing  among  them  but  "  Christ 
and  him  crucified  ;"  a  determination  easy  for  him  to  carry  out,  for  he 
was  thoroughly  converted  to,  and  quite  well  acquainted  with,  Christ ; 
while  his  other  "knowledges"  were,  for  this  purpose,  conveniently 
few  and  small.  His  friend,  Mr.  Stillson,  a  Presbyterian  elder,  who 
was  for  a  long  time  his  constant  counselor  and  helper,  declares  that 
during  those  years  he  does  not  know  of  Moody's  owning  any  other 
book  except  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament. 

In  order  to  bring  his  work  to  a  religious  focus,  he  established  week- 
night  prayer-meetings  in  the  old  saloon.  In  one  respect  these  prayer- 
meetings  were  peculiar :  namely,  they  were  nothing  else  than  an  as- 
sembly of  people  who  wanted  something  of  God,  and  who  came  togeth- 
er expecting  to  get  it  by  asking.  The  going  through  with  a  set  of 
appropriate  religious  exercises  was  to  them  a  thing  wholly  unknown. 
They  came  together,  a  company  of  penitent  sinners,  not  because  they 
ought  to  come,  but  because  they  wanted  to  come.  To  this  rude  place, 
seated  with  rough  boards  placed  upon  empty  nail  kegs,  lighted  by  a 
few  candles,  and  protected  from  violence  by  the  police,  came  those 
children  and  older  persons  whose  hearts  the  Gospel  had  reached,  to 
inquire  of  Mr.  Moody  and  his  New  Testament  what  they  must  do  to 
be  saved.  There  was  a  charming  freshness  in  the  praying  and  speak- 
ing at  these  meetings,  which  was  just  what  might  be  expected  from 
the  previous  training  of  the  school.  These  inquirers  believed  in  God, 
not  as  an  "unknown  and  unknowable  force,"  but  as  the  Maker  ami 
Governor  of  heaven  and  earth.  They  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  not  as 
"a  reforming.Jew,"  but  as  the  Son  of  God  who  came  into  the  world 
to  save  sinners ;  and,  though  they  had  no  clear  conception  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  they  were  greatly  under  his  influence ;  going  about  the 
work  of  repentance  and  prayer  for  themselves  and  for  their  friends 
with  the  same  simple  directness  with  which  they  would  have  entered 
upon  any  other  work.  The  best  praying  was  held  to  be  thai  which 
brought  the  greatest  blessing,  no  matter  how  rude  and  uncouth  the 
language  ;  the  best  exhorting,  that  which  brought  souls  soonest  t  > 
the  Saviour. 

Here  Mr.  Moody  began  to  learn  the  true  work  of  the  Christiai 
pastor.  He  was  brought  face  to  face  with  the  sins  and  sorrows  of 
immortal  souls,  laid  open  before  him  for  sympathy  and  instruction, 


26        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

as  confidingly  as  he  laid  them  before  God  for  pardon  and  comfort. 
According-  to  his  theory  the  penitent  sinner  might  immediately  be- 
come a  Christian  on  the  terms  laid  down  by  the  apostle  :  "  Believe  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved.' 

To  his  mind  nothing  could  be  easier  than  this  ;  and  to  those  poor 
people,  uninstructed  in  the  mysteries  of  systematic  theology,  it  also 
appeared  easy.  They  had  never  heard  the  distinctions  between  in- 
tellectual faith,  historic  faith,  and  saving  faith ;  but  they  did  as  they 
were  taught — reached  out  their  dirty  hands  to  take  Christ,  and  at- 
tended to  the  washing  of  the  hands  afterward. 

Mr.  Moody  relates  the  following,  among  his  missionary 
experiences : — 

"One  of  our  friends  reported  a  family  where  there  were 
several  children  who  were  'due'  at  the  North  Market  School, 
but  whose  father  was  a  notorious  infidel  rum-seller,  and 
wouldn't  let  them  come. 

"  I  called  on  him ;  but  as  soon  as  I  made  known  my  errand 
I  was  obliged  to  get  out  of  that  place  very  quickly,  in  order 
to  save  my  head. 

"  '  I  would  rather  my  son  should  be  a  thief,  and  my  daugh- 
ter a  harlot,  than  have  you  make  fools  and  Christians  of  them 
over  there  at  your  Sunday-school,'  said  he. 

"One  day  I  found  the  man  in  a  little  better  humor  than 
usual,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  ever  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment. He  said  he  hadn't,  and  then  asked  me  if  I  had  ever 
read  Paine's  'Age  of  Reason.'  He  then  agreed  to  read  the 
Testament  if  I  would  read  Paine's  book. 

"  He  had  the  best  of  the  bargain  ;  but  it  gave  me  a  chance 
to  call  again  to  bring  him  the  book.  After  wading  through 
that  mass  of  infidel  abominations  I  called  on  him  again,  to 
see  how  he  got  on  with  the  Testament,  but  found  him  full  of 
objections  and  hot  for  debate. 

'"See  here,  young  man,'  said  he;  'you  are  inviting  me  and 
my  family  to  go  to  meeting :  now  you  may  have  a  meeting 
here,  if  you  like.' 

"  '  What !  will  you  let  me  preach  here  in  your  saloon  ?  ' 

41  'Yes,'  he  said. 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  27 

'"And  will  you  bring  in  your  family,  and  let  me  bring  in 
the  neighbors? ' 

" '  Yes.  But  mind,  you  are  not  to  do  all  the  talking.  I 
and  my  friends  will  have  something  to  say.' 

"'All  right.  You  shall  have  forty-five  minutes,  and  I  will 
have  fifteen.' 

"  The  time  for  the  meeting  was  set,  and  when  I  got  there  I 
found  a  great  crowd  of  atheists,  blasphemers,  and  other  wild 
characters  waiting  for  a  chance  to  make  mince-meat  of  me, 
and  use  up  the  New  Testament  forever. 
'"You  shall  begin,'  said  I. 
"  Upon  this  they  began  to  ask  questions. 
"'No  questions!     I  haven't  come  to  argue  with  you,  but 
to  preach  Christ  to  you.     Go  on  and  say  what  you  like,  and 
then  I  will  speak.' 

"Then  they  began  to  talk  among  themselves;  but  it  wasn't 
long  before  they  quarreled  over  their  own  different  unbeliefs, 
so  that  what  began  as  a  debate  was  in  danger  of  ending  in  a 
fight. 

'"Order!  Your  time  is  up.  I  am  in  the  habit  of  begin- 
ning my  addresses  with  prayer.      Let  us  pray.' 

"Stop!  stop!'  said  one.  'There's  no  use  in  your  pray- 
ing. Besides,  your  bible  says  there  must  be  "two  agreed" 
if  there  is  to  be  any  praying;  and  you  are  all  alone.' 

"I  replied  that  perhaps  some  of  them  might  feel  like 
praying  before  I  got  through,  and  so  I  opened  my  heart  to 
God. 

"When  I  had  finished  a  little  boy,  who  had  been  converted 
in  the  Mission  School  and  had  come  with  me  to  this  strange 
meeting,  began  to  pray.  His  childish  voice  and  simple  faith 
at  once  attracted  the  closest  attention.  As  he  went  on  tell- 
ing the  Lord  all  about  these  wicked  men,  and  begging  him  to 
help  them  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon 
the  assembly.  A  great  solemnity  came  over  those  hard-heart- 
ed infidels  and  scoffers;  there  was  not  a  diy  eye  in  the  room. 
Pretty  soon  they  began  to  be  frightened.  They  rushed  out, 
some  by  one  door  and  some  by  the  other — did  not  stop  to 


28        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

hear  a  word  of  the  sermon,  but  fled  from  the  place  as  if  it  had 
been  haunted. 

"  As  a  result  of  this  meeting  we  captured  all  the  old  infidel's 
children  for  our  Sunday-school;  and  a  little  while  after  the 
man  himself  stood  up  in  the  noonday  prayer-meeting,  and 
begged  us  to  pray  for  his  miserable  soul." 

Among  the  various  annoyances  to  which  Mr.  Moody  was 
subjected  by  the  half-civilized  people  among  whom  he  labored, 
was  the  repeated  breaking  of  the  windows  of  his  prayer-room 
by  some  boys  whose  parents  were  Roman  Catholics. 

When  the  strain  on  his  patience  came  to  be  too  severe 
Moody  determined  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  matter,  and 
accordingly  went  to  Bishop  Duggan,  the  Romish  prelate  of 
Chicago,  and  laid  his  grievance  before  him.  He  told  the 
bishop  that  he  was  trying  to  do  good  in  a  part  of  the  city 
which  every  body  else  had  neglected,  and  that  it  was  a 
shame  that  the  members  of  the  bishop's  Church  should  break 
the  windows  of  his  school  room. 

The  zeal  and  boldness  of  the  man  surprised  and  delighted 
the  bishop,  who  promised  that  the  lambs  of  his  flock  should 
hereafter  be  duly  restrained.  Moody,  thus  encouraged,  went 
on  to  say  that  he  often  came  upon  sick  people  who  were 
Roman  Catholics;  he  should  be  very  glad  to  pray  with  them 
and  relieve  them,  but  they  were  so  suspicious  of  him  that 
they  would  not  allow  him  to  come  near  them.  Now,  if  the 
bishop  would  give  him  a  good  word  to  these  people,  it  would 
help  him  amazingly  in  his  work  of  charity. 

Such  a  request  from  a  heretical  Protestant  was  probably 
never  made  of  a  Catholic  bishop  before.  But  he  very  kindly 
replied  that  he  should  be  most  happy  to  give  the  recommen- 
dation if  Mr.  Moody  would  only  join  the  Catholic  Church, 
telling  him  at  the  same  time  he  seemed  to  be  too  good  and 
valuable  a  man  to  be  a  heretic. 

"  I  am  afraid  that  would  hinder  me  in  my  work  among  the 
Protestants,"  said  Moody. 

"Not  at  all,"  answered  the  bishop. 

"  What  !  do  you  mean  to  say  that  I  could  go  to  the  Noon 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  29 

Prayer  Meeting,  and  pray  with  all  kinds  of  Christian  people 
— Baptists,  Methodists,  Presbyterians,  all  together — just  as  I 
do  now  ?  " 

"O,  yes,"  replied  the  bishop;  "if  it  were  necessary  you 
might  do  that." 

"  So,  then,  Protestants  and  Catholics  can  pray  together, 
can  they  5  " 

"  Yes." 

"Well,  bishop,  this  is  a  very  important  matter,  and  ought 
to  be  attended  to  at  once.  No  man  wants  to  belong  to  the 
true  Church  more  than  I  do.  I  wish  you  would  pray  for  me 
right  here,  that  God  would  show  me  his  true  Church,  and  help 
me  to  be  a  worthy  member  of  it." 

Of  course  the  prelate  could  not  refuse  ;  so  they  kneeled 
down  together,  and  the  bishop  prayed  very  lovingly  for  the 
heretic,  and  when  he  had  finished  the  heretic  began  to  pray 
for  the  bishop. 

From  that  day  to  the  day  of  his  death  Bishop  Duggan  and 
Mr.  Moody  were  good  friends.  The  bishop  made  no  prog- 
ress in  converting  him,  it  is  true,  but  he  stopped  his  wild 
young  parishioners  from  breaking  the  prayer-room  windows; 
and  if  only  Moody  would  have  joined  the  Church  of  Rome, 
there  is  no  telling  to  what  high  dignities  he  might  have  come  ! 

This  incident  was  published  in  London  during  Mr.  Moody's 
meetings  there,  and  a  Catholic  priest  who  read  it  called  on 
him,  and  labored  with  him  for  a  long  time,  with  the  utmost 
zeal  and  earnestness,  in  the  hope  that  he  might  be  persuaded 
into  the  Church  of  Peter  and  Mary. 

"  If  you  would  only  join  the  true  Church,"  said  the  priest, 
"you  would  be  the  greatest  man  in  England." 

Mr.  Moody's  wonderful  success  with  his  North  Market 
Mission  Sunday-School  soon  made  him  famous  in  that  line  of 
work,  and  among  other  results  of  this  reputation  lie  began  to 
receive  calls  to  speak  at  Sunday-school  conventions  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  State.  Wherever  he  went  his  enthusiasm, 
freedom,  and  hard  common  sense,  gave  him  great  power 
with  his  audience.     They  recognized  him  as  a  natural  leader, 


30       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  in  response  to  his  exhortations  gave  themselves  more 
completely  to  their  work  for  Christ. 

The  organization  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  under  which  all 
the  townships  were  visited  with  a  view  to  establishing  Sun- 
day-schools in  neglected  localities,  was  largely  due  to  his 
energy  and  foresight,  and  as  this  organization  became  known, 
he  was  invited  to  address  conventions  of  Sunday-school 
workers  in  other  States,  and  show  them  how  to  organize 
their  work  upon  "the  Illinois  plan." 

In  these  conventions  his  talent  for  "  speaking  pieces," 
which  was  the  only  literary  accomplishment  he  ever  pos- 
sessed, was  called  into  abundant  exercise ;  and,  as  he  often 
now  confesses,  he  made  himself  somewhat  unpopular  with 
his  brethren  by  over-much  pious  discourse.  "  I  suppose 
they  used  to  think  me  a  nuisance,"  said  Mr.  Moody  recently 
in  speaking  of  his  exhortations  during  that  portion  of  his  life. 
"I  used  to  think  I  must  say  something  in  every  meeting  I 
attended,  until  one  good  minister  advised  me  to  hold  my 
tongue." 

This  plain  piece  of  Christian  counsel,  instead  of  making 
the  young  man  angry,  and  sending  him  off  in  the  sulks  to 
backslide  and  go  to  the  bad,  had  the  good  effect  to  set  him 
thinking  how  he  could  make  his  speech  more  edifying;  for  he 
possessed  that  rare  grace  of  spirit  which  enabled  him  to  profit 
by  his  own  mistakes.  One  of  his  long-tried  friends  speaks 
of  him  thus  : — 

"  Moody  was  all  the  time  making  blunders,  but  he  never 
made  the  same  mistake  twice." 

One  day  a  friend  who  was  deeply  interested  in  his  success 
said  to  him  : — 

"  Moody,  if  you  want  to  draw  wine  out  of  a  cask  it  is  need- 
ful first  to  put  some  in.  You  are  all  the  time  talking,  and 
you  ought  to  begin  to  study." 

To  this  Mr.  Moody  assented  ;  and  his  friend  proceeded  to 
mark  out  for  him  a  course  of  reading,  intending  to  assist  him 
in  enlarging  his  education.  Among  the  books  selected  was 
Muller's  "  Life  of  Trust."     But  before  he  had  fully  entered 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  31 

upon  this  short  road  to  learning,  his  preceptor,  through  some 
sudden  change  in  business  matters,  left  the  city.  Thus  nar- 
rowly did  he  escape  becoming  a  bookish  man. 

MR.  MOODY  WITH  THE  YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION. 

Mr. "Moody  frequently  says  he  is  more  indebted  to  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  for  his  success  as  an  evan- 
gelist than  to  any  other  organized  means  of  grace  ;  and  it  is 
equally  true  that  this  organization  is  more  indebted  to  him 
than  to  any  other  man,  living  or  dead. 

The  Chicago  Association  was  organized  as  one  of  the  re- 
sults of  the  great  revival  of  1857-8,  and  one  of  its  first  move- 
ments was  the  establishment  of  a  daily  noon  prayer-meet- 
ing, after  the  fashion  of  the  Fulton-street  prayer-meeting 
in  New  York.  Mr.  Moody  at  once  identified  himself  with 
the  Association  and  the  noon  prayer-meeting,  where  he  was 
accustomed  to  relate  the  incidents  which  occurred  in  con- 
nection with  his  missionary  field  on  "  The  Sands."  He  also 
made  himself  conspicuous  by  his  bold  attacks  upon  fashion- 
able sins,  such  as  tippling,  the  use  of  tobacco,  going  to  the 
theater,  playing  billiards,  and  other  amusements,  whose  asso- 
ciations were  evil.  From  being  a  profane  and  unmanageable 
boy  he  had  become  the  sternest  kind  of  a  Puritan,  and  was 
very  severe  against  professors  of  religion  who  were  so  nearly 
like  the  world's  people  that  it  was  hard  to  tell  the  difference, 
in  consequence  of  which  many  were  offended  and  ceased  to 
attend  the  meeting;  but  this  made  no  difference  with  young 
Moody,  who  then,  as  now,  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  perse- 
verance of  the  saints. 

When  the  attendance  fell  to  half  a  do/en  he  was  one  of  the 
six  ;  and  when  there  were  but  three  he  was  one  of  the  three, 
the  other  two  very  likely  being  his  gqpd  friends,  J.  V.  Far- 
well  and  B.  F.  Jacobs. 

One  day,  all  these  brethren  being  out  of  town,  nobody 
went  to  the  prayer-meeting  but  one  old  Scotchwoman.  This 
excellent  person  set  great  store  by  the  noon  meeting,  and, 


32      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

when  no  one  else  appeared,  she  determined  to  hold  it  herself 
rather  than  have  it  fail,  even  for  a  single  day.  So,  after  wait- 
ing a  long  time,  she  put  on  her  spectacles,  went  forward  to 
the  leader's  desk,  read  a  passage  of  Scripture,  talked  it  over 
to  herself,  for  the  comfort  of  her  old  heart,  and  then  offered 
prayer  for  the  languishing  meeting,  and  for  the  outpouring  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  it  and  upon  the  city.  Prayer  being 
ended,  she  sung  a  psalm,  and,  the  time  having  thus  been  all 
improved,  she  went  comfortably  home,  feeling  that  she  had 
done  her  duty,  gained  a  blessing,  and  saved  the  noon  prayer- 
meeting  from  utter  extinction.  On  relating  her  solitary  ex- 
perience some  of  the  brethren  were  deeply  impressed  by  it. 
Mr.  Moody  at  once  set  about  the  business  of  bringing  in  re- 
cruits; and  so  well  did  he  succeed  that  very  soon  there  was 
a  large  and  regular  attendance,  and  the  meeting  began  to  be 
marked  with  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 

About  this  time  he  began  to  feel  called  to  separate  himself 
from  business  and  to  give  himself  wholly  to  mission  work.  As 
a  business  man  he  was  an  unquestioned  success,  as  appears 
not  only  by  his  large  sales  and  profits  in  the  line  of  boots  and 
shoes,  but  also  in  his  subsequent  management  of  great  finan- 
cial interests  connected  with  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

Farwell  Hall,  in  Chicago,  which  was  the  first  structure  ever 
built  by  and  for  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in 
America,  owes  its  existence  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Moody. 
When  it  was  burned  a  few  weeks  after  its  dedication,  he 
raised  the  funds  for  the  second  building;  and,  although  he 
shortly  after  resigned  his  office  as  president  of  the  Associa- 
tion, and  has  since  refused  to  act  on  all  finance  committees, 
he  has  nevertheless  secured  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million 
'  dollars  in  aid  of  the  building  enterprises  of  this  organization, 
in  London,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Chicago,  besides 
large  sums  for  other  branches  of  Christian  work. 

When  he  announced   his  intention  of  giving  up  business, 
one  of  his  friends  inquired  how  he  expected  to  live. 

"  God  will  provide  for  me,"  was  his  reply.     To  those  who 
sometimes  blamed  him  for  his  improvidence  he  would  say, 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  33 

"  God  is  rich,  and  I  am  working  for  him."  He  had  saved  a 
small  sum  of  money  for  his  own  expenses  and  those  of  Ids 
beloved  North  Market  Mission  School,  which  lie  seemed  to 
regard  rather  as  his  family  to  be  brought  up  and  provided 
for  than  as  a  mere  institution  of  learning;  and  when  this  was 
exhausted,  and  he  no  longer  had  money  to  pay  for  his  lodg- 
ings in  a  cheap  boarding-house,  he  took  refuge  in  the  rooms 
of  the  Association  ;  eating  when  he  had  a  chance,  and  sleeping 
on  the  prayer-room  benches.  It  is  not  known  how  long  he 
had  pursued  this  way  of  life  before  it  was  discovered  by  his 
friends  ;  but  the  fact  that  he  subjected  himself  to  such  priva- 
tions for  the  sake  of  his  duty,  and  that,  too,  without  the  least 
apparent  loss  of  vigor  and  cheerfulness,  or  even  a  word  of 
complaint,  shows  the  heroic  nature  of  the  man. 

On  the  breaking  out  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  in  1S61, 
Mr.  Moody,  who  was  already  well  known  at  home,  was  brought 
into  wider  notice  through  his  work  in  the  Christian  Commis- 
sion, for  which  his  home  missionary  experience  had  admi- 
rably fitted  him. 

Back  and  forth,  between  Chicago  and  the  various  camps 
and  battle-fields,  with  tireless  vigor  and  jubilant  faith  he 
toiled  and  traveled  during  the  four  terrible  years  of  'war; 
which*  by  the  work  of  the  Christian  Commission,  were  trans- 
formed from  four  great  harvests  of  death  into  four  great  har- 
vests of  souls  for  the  garner  of  the  Lord  in  heaven.  Wave 
after  wave  of  patriotism  and  Christian  devotion  swept  over 
the  land,  while  love  of  country  and  love  of  Christ  were 
mingled  so  that  no  one  could  tell  where  one  ended  and  the 
other  began. 

Like  the  men  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  Moody  and 
his  brethren  saw  God's  wonders  in  camp  and  field.  Having 
so  many  sinners  to  point  to  the  Saviour,  and  so  little  time  in 
which  to  do  it,  they  prayed  to  the  Lord  to  do  his  "short 
work."  So  many  men  found  the  Saviour,  and  died  while 
thev  were  praying  for  them,  that  they  came  to  have  a  strange 
familiarity  with  heaven.  These  souls  seemed  to  be  messen- 
gers between  them  and  God,  carrying  up  continually  the  fresh 
2* 


34       Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  glowing  record  of  the  work  they  were  doing  in  his  name 
And  so  simple  and  easy  did  it  become  for  them  to  "  ask  and 
receive,"  that  they  were  rather  surprised  if  the  penitent  sol- 
dier for  whose  conversion  they  prayed  was  not  blessed  before 
they  reached  the  amen. 

No  thoughtful  person  can  study  the  history  of  the  Sanitary 
and  Christian  Commissions  without  feeling  sure  that,  while 
the  devils  were  making  "  a  long  pull,  a  strong  pull,  and  a  pull 
altogether,"  Jesus  Christ,  the  Captain  of  salvation,  had  his 
forces  also  in  the  field.  Christian  men  in  camps  and  battles, 
Christian  women  in  hospitals  and  prisons,  and  good  angels 
every-where,  were  working  with  might  and  main  together  to 
save  the  souls  and  bodies  of  the  soldiers — gathering  in  the 
great  harvest  which  death  was  constantly  ripening.  In  the 
midst  of  the  horrors  of  war  Cod  was  working  miracles  of 
grace,  the  like  of  which  no  other  war-history  has  ever  seen. 
Almost  every  campaign  was  begun  and  ended  with  a  revival. 

No  wonder  that  men  working  year  after  year  amid  such 
scenes  as  these  should  have  learned  how  to  claim  the  prom- 
ises in  prayer!  They  acquired  the  habit  of  talking  to  God 
with  the  same  simplicity  and  directness  as  with  one  another  ; 
their  faith  increased  continually  by  the  sight  of  the  swift 
procession  of  Divine  mercies  which  was  all  the  time  sweep- 
ing by. 

These  wonders  of  grace  in  camp  and  field  were  reported 
at  the  Chicago  noon  prayer-meeting  by  Mr.  Moody  and  his 
co-workers  on  their  return  from  their  frequent  excursions  to 
the  front,  and  by  this  means  a  very  intimate  connection  was 
kept  up  between  the  work  in  the  army  and  the  work  at  home, 
thus  making  the  meeting  intensely  interesting,  especially  to 
those  whose  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers  were  fighting  for 
the  Union. 

Strangely  enough,  as  though  no  other  place  were  so  near 
to  heaven,  and  no  other  believers  had  such  access  to  the  ear 
of  the  Lord,  people  from  all  over  the  State,  and  even  from 
neighboring  States,  used  to  send  requests  for  prayer  to  be 
read  at  the  Chicago  Noon  Prayer  Meeting.     These  requests 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  35 

were  received  by  thousands;  and  often,  in  quick  succession, 
came  the  tidings  of  glorious  answers  to  prayer,  with  offerings 
of  glad  thanksgivings,  and  sometimes  gifts  of  money  and  sup- 
plies for  helping  on  the  work  of  the  Commission. 

In  this  way  the  Chicago  noon  meeting  became  the  very 
center  and  heart  of  the  religious  life  of  the  whole  North- 
west, and  Mr.  Moody  was  the  center  of  the  noon  meeting. 

The  following  picture  of  his  methods  of  work,  from  the 
book  already  mentioned,  will  help  the  reader  to  understand 
the  man  : — 

A  Strangers'  Meeting  was  held  on  Monday  evenings,  at  which  Mr. 
Moody  usually  presided,  where  he  talked  and  prayed  with  such  point 
and  freedom  as  few  other  men  would  have  ventured  to  use.  His  first 
effort  was  to  make  strangers  feel  perfectly  at  home,  in  which  he 
succeeded  to  a  wonderful  degree.  He  greeted  them  with  the  heart- 
iness of  an  old  friend.  He  would  ask  their  names,  where  they 
came  from,  where  they  lived,  what  business  they  were  doing,  what 
churches  they  had  attended  ;  giving  them  such  information  and  coun- 
sel as  he  thought  would  be  of  practical  service.  He  would  single 
out  the  new-comers  and  call  on  them  to  speak.     Thus  : — 

"  You,  brother,  over  there  by  the  first  window,  don't  you  love  the 
Lord  ?  " 

"  That  red-haired  man  on  the  back  seat,  are  you  a  Christian  ?  " 

And  the  timid  brother  thus  addressed  would  rise  tremblingly  to  his 
feet,  and  give  a  reason  of  the  hope  which  was  in  him,  if  he  had  one ; 
whereupon  Mr.  Moody  would  immediately  ask  his  name  and  resi- 
dence, note  it  down  in  his  book,  and  tell  the  new  man  that  he  was 
now  to  count  himself  one  of  the  old  members,  and  to  begin  to  help  in 
looking  up  and  entertaining  the  strangers. 

Sometimes  he  would  walk  up  and  down  the  aisles,  looking  into  the 
faces  of  the  congregation  for  signs  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on 
their  hearts  ;  and  when  he  noticed  a  person  who  seemed  to  be 
thoughtful,  or  penitent,  he  would  go  straight  to  his  side  and  say, 
"Are  you  a  Christian?"  If  the  answer  was  at  all  doubtful,  he 
would  instantly  follow  with,  "  Do  you  want  to  be  saved  ?  Do 
you  want  to  be  saved  now?"  Ami,  before  the  half-penitent  sin- 
ner had  time  to  make  objections,  he  would  have  him  on  his  knees 
in  prayer,  kneeling  himself  beside  him,  while  the  whole  congre- 
gation were  kneeling  around  him.     The  man  thus  publicly  brought 


36       Moody  :  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

out  as  a  seeker  of  religion  would  generally  give  himself  up  to  the 
Lord,  being,  as  it  were,  pushed  headforemost  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ;  though  under  a  less  impetuous  leader  he  might,  for  years, 
have  dragged  himself  along  at  a  snail's  pace  toward  the  entrance 
of  the  Church. 

Every  thing  was  done  promptly  ;  no  long  speeches  or  prayers  were 
tolerated.  Sometimes  a  slow-going  brother  would  fail  to  notice  the 
stroke  of  the  bell,  which  was  a  warning  that  his  three  minutes  were 
up,  and  if  the  one  in  charge  of  the  meeting  hesitated  in  his  duty,  Mr. 
Moody  would  jump  to  his  feet  and  perhaps  ask  the  stranger  a  ques- 
tion. Then  catching  the  first  few  words  of  his  answer,  he  would  use 
it  as  a  rudder  with  which  to  bring  the  meeting  up  before  the  wind 
and  send  it  off  on  its  proper  course  again,  leaving  the  bewildered 
brother  out  of  sight  behind. 

He  was  conscious  of  his  power  over  those  who  were  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  other  men  ;  but  he  never  used  blunt  words  and  phrases 
merely  for  sensational  effect.  A  man  m.ore  perfectly  natural  it  would 
be  a  difficult  matter  to  find. 

Perhaps  it  was  this  which  carried  him  triumphantly  over  his  own 
mistakes,  and  prevented  his  being  unduly  mortified  or  cast  down  by 
reason  of  his  many  trifling  blunders.  In  the  saving  power  of  rhetoric 
and  grammar  he  had  no  faith  at  all  ;  and  the  possession  of  these 
gifts  by  others  never  made  him  afraid  of  them,  or  hindered  him  from 
speaking  his  mind  to  them  in  his  own  plain  and  honest  way. 

Many  were  troubled  by  this,  at  first ;  but  his  earnest  manner  came 
at  length  to  be  so  well  understood,  that  people  ceased  to  be  offended 
or  even  surprised  by  it.     It  came  of  love  and  not  of  pride. 

On  one  occasion  he  called  upon  his  old  friend  the  ex- 
mayor,  who  was  laid  up  with  a  broken  leg,  to  tell  him  that 
God  had  evidently  given  him  a  chance  now  to  attend  to  the 
salvation  of  his  soul,  and  to  pray  with  him  for  that  end.  In 
speaking  of  this  prayer  the  ex-mayor  said:  "I  have  been 
prayed  for,  and  prayed  at,  a  great  many  times,  but  no  one 
ever  prayed  wit/i  me  before." 

One  of  the  objects  of  interest  in  Mr.  Moody's  career  is 
his  Tabernacle,  built  in  the  very  heart  of  the  burned  district 
during  the  winter  after  the  great  Chicago  fire  of  October  8 
and  9,  1871. 

His  North  Market  Mission  had   been   blessed   to  such  u 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  37 

degree  that  a  Church  of  nearly  three  hundred  members  had 
grown  out  of  it,  and  Mr.  Moody  had  raised  the  money  and 
built  for  them  a  large  and  handsome  house  of  worship,  with 
ample  rooms  for  his  precious  Sunday-school.  This  building 
stood  about  midway  in  the  path  of  the  fire,  which  swept  with 
terrible  destruction  over  an  area  about  three  miles  in  length 
by  one  in  breadth  ;  in  all  of  which  space  only  one  house 
remained. 

Presently  the  scattered  people  began  to  hover  around  the 
ashes  of  their  ruined  homes,  taking  refuge  in  some  nook  or 
corner  of  the  half-fallen  walls,  or  in  relief  shanties  erected 
by  the  charity  which  all  the  Christian  world  was  pouring  into 
the  lap  of  the  blighted  city.  By  the  aid  of  his  friends  chiefly 
in  Brooklyn  and  Philadelphia,  to  which  cities  he  went  on  a 
revival  tour  before  the  ruins  of  his  church,  his  home,  and  his 
dear  Farwell  Hall  were  fairly  done  smoking,  the  great  rough 
building  represented  in  the  engraving  was  erected,  which  at 
once  became,  and  for  over  a  year  remained,  the  center  of  a 
great  charity  and  the  scene  of  a  great  revival.  Relief  for  the 
body  and  salvation  for  the  soul  were  freely  offered  night  and 
day,  and  during  that  fearful  winter  many  a  shivering,  hungry, 
homeless  wanderer  was  warmed,  and  fed,  and  sheltered,  and 
at  the  same  time  urged  to  take  refuge  in  the  loving  heart  of 
Christ.  The  school  and  Church,  a  full  thousand  of  them, 
were  literally  sitting  among  the  ashes;  but  so  much  of  cour- 
age and  good  cheer  did  Mr.  Moody  and  his  band  of  workers 
manifest,  that  there  was  always  a  song  of  praise  and  joy  ready 
to  leap  forth  at  the  call  of  Mr.  Sankey,  who  had  joined  the 
school  a  little  while  before  the  fire,  and  had  not  deserted 
them  in  their  distresses.  They  realized  to  a  great  extent 
the  force  of  the  apostle's  words,  "  Having  nothing,  and  yet 
possessing  all  things." 

Mr.  Moody,  in  one  of  his  recent  sermons,  likens  the  proc- 
esses of  divine  grace  by  which  human  souls  are  prepared 
for  the  Lord's  work  and  the  Lord's  kingdom  to  the  process 
of  making  chromo  lithographs,  which  he  had  seen  in  Mr. 
Prang's  establishment,  in  Boston.     The  first  impression  from 


38       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

the  first  stone  gave  only  a  few  faint  outlines  and  shadows, 
but  as  the  picture  was  printed  over  and  over  on  different 
stones  it  gradually  took  on  color  and  beauty,  till  at  the  twenty- 
eighth  or  thirtieth  stone  it  was  "a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy 
forever."  So  God  prepared  Mr.  Moody  himself,  and  by  vari- 
ous hard  experiences  and  strong  impressions  brought  him  to 
a  degree  of  perfectness  as  a  Christian  worker  which  is  at  once 
the  joy  and  wonder  of  the  Christian  world. 

MR.  MOODY'S  BIBLE  WORK. 

Mr.  Moody  is  a  man  of  one  book. 

Years  ago  Harry  Moorehouse,  the  English  Bible  reader, 
said  to  him,  while  visiting  his  Church  in  Chicago,  "If  you 
will  stop  preaching  your  own  words  and  preach  God's  word, 
he  will  make  you  a  great  power  for  good."  This  prophecy 
made  a  deep  impression  on  Mr.  Moody's  mind,  and  from  that 
time  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  as  he  had 
never  done  before.  He  had  been  accustomed  to  draw  his 
sermons  from  the  experiences  of  Christians  and  the  life  of  the 
streets,  but  now  he  began  to  follow  the  counsel  of  his  friend, 
and  preach  the  word.  His  first  series  of  sermons  on  charac- 
ters in  the  Bible  was  preached  during  the  summer  before  the 
great  Chicago  fire,  and  at  once  attracted  great  attention.  He 
also  began  to  compare  Scripture  with  Scripture.  "  If  I  don't 
understand  a  text,"  said  his  friend  Moorehouse,  "  I  ask  an- 
other text  to  explain  it,  and  then  if  it  is  too  hard  for  me,  I 
take  it  to  the  Lord  and  ask  him  about  it."  This  method  Mr. 
Moody  adopted,  and  this  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  power. 
He  is  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  and  speaks  with  authority 
from  God. 

As  a. leader  in  the  Bible  work,  which  has  lately  become  such 
an  important  feature  in  the  Church  in  America,  Mr.  Moody 
stands  pre-eminent ;  and  thousands  of  Christians  have  read 
and  profited  by  his  lectures  on  "  How  to  Study  the  Bible." 
The  chief  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Moody's  Bible  study  is,  that 
it  is  the  study  of  the  Bible  itself. 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  39 

He  has  a  large  library  at  his  house  in  Northfield,  which 
have  been  presented  to  him  by  admiring  friends;  but  it  ia 
safe  to  say  that  there  are  not  half  a  dozen  books  in  the 
world,  besides  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
of  which  he  could  give  the  names  and  a  general  outline 
of  their  contents;  hence  there  is  room  in  his  head  for  God's 
word,  and  with  it  he  keeps  himself  continually  full  and 
running  over.  His  method  of  Bible  study  is  like  the  method 
of  a  humming-bird  studying  a  clover  blossom.  From  the 
cells  of  sweetness  down  into  which  he  has  thrust  his  questions 
and  his  prayers,  he  brings  up  the  honey  which  God  has  stored 
away  ;  he  revels  in  the  profusion  and  preciousness  of  the 
promises  like  a  robin  in  a  tree  full  of  ripe  cherries.  It  is  en- 
joyable just  to  see  how  heartily  he  enjoys  the  word  of  God, 
and  almost  convincing  to  see  with  what  absolute  faith  he 
clings  to  it  for  his  own  salvation,  and  with  what  absolute  as- 
surance he  urges  others  to  do  the  same.  To  Mr.  Moody  the 
word  of  God  is  food,  drink,  lodging,  and  clothes  ;  he  climbs 
by  it  toward  heaven  as  a  sailor  climbs  the  rigging;  it  is  an 
anchor  to  hold  him;  a  gale  to  drive  him  ;  it  is  health,  hope, 
happiness,  eternal  life. 

It  is  by  this  loving,  prayerful,  trustful  study  of  the  Script- 
ures that  he  has  acquired  his  skill  as  a  practical  commentator. 

Take,  as  a  specimen  of  his  off-hand  comments,  this  from 
one  of  the  Bible  readings  on  Hope  : — 

"  Hope  is  the  anchor  of  the  soul.  Now  none  of  you  ever 
saw  an  anchor  but  was  used  to  hold  something  down.  It  goes 
down  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  takes  hold  of  the  ground, 
ami  holds  the  ship  to  it.  But  this  anchor,  this  hope,  is  to 
hold  us  up  :  it  enters  within  the  vail;  it  takes  hold  of  the 
throne  of  God." 

On  the  text,  "Faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the 
word  of  God,"  he  said:  "A  great  many  people  are  mourning 
their  want  of  faith;  but  there  is  no  wonder  that  they  haven't 
any  faith  :  they  don't  study  the  word  of  God.  How  do  you 
suppose  you  are  to  have  faith  in  God  when  you  don't  know 
any  thing  about  him?     It  is  those  who  haven't  any  acquaint- 


40       Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

ance  with  God  that  stumble  and  fall;  but  those  who  know 
him  can  trust  him  and  lean  heavy  on  his  arm.  If  a  man 
would  rather  read  the  Sunday  newspapers  than  read  God's 
word,  I  don't  see  how  Chiist  is  going  to  save  him.  There  is 
no  room  in  him  for  the  Gospel  when  he  has  filled  himself 
with  the  newspapers.  For  years  I  have  not  touched  a  Sun- 
day newspaper,  or  a  weekly  religious  paper  either,  on  Sunday. 
Some  people  lay  aside  those  religious  papers  for  Sunday  read- 
ing, but  that  is  not  a  good  way.  Let  us  lay  aside  all  other 
reading  for  one  day  in  the  week,  and  devote  ourselves  to  the 
study  of  God's  word.  But  you  say,  '  O,  we  must  study  science 
and  literature,  and  such  things,  in  order  to  understand  the 
Bible.'  What  can  a  botanist  tell  you  about  the  '  Rose  of 
Sharon'  and  the  '  Lily  of  the  Valley?'  What  can  the  geol- 
ogist tell  you  about  the  '  Rock  of  Ages  ?  '  What  can  the 
astronomer  tell  you  about  'The  Bright  and  Morning  Star?' 

"  A  good  many  people  are  asking,  '  Will  this  work  hold 
out  ? ' 

"  Now  I  am  not  a  prophet,  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet,  but  there 
is  one  thing  I  can  predict,  and  that  is,  that  every  one  of  these 
young  converts  who  studies  his  Bible  till  he  learns  to  love  it 
better  than  any  thing  else  will  be  sure  to  hold  out ;  the  world 
will  have  no  charms  for  him.  What  all  these  young  converts 
want  is  to  be  in  love  with  the  word  of  God ;  to  feed  upon  it 
till  it  comes  to  be  sweeter  than  honey  and  the  honeycomb. 

"  One  day  when  my  old  employer,  C.  N.  Henderson,  was 
sending  me  out  to  make  some  collections,  he  gave  me  some 
notes  on  which  he  had  made  three  private  marks.  Some 
were  marked  '  B,'  bad,  and  I  was  to  get  any  thing  I  could 
for  them.  Others  were  marked  '  D,'  doubtful ;  I  was  to  get 
all  the  security  I  could.  And  others  were  marked  '  G,' 
good,  and  these  I  was  to  treat  accordingly.  Now  people  take 
God's  notes,  or  promises,  and  some  of  them  they  mark  'B,' 
because  they  don't  believe  in  them;  others  they  mark  '  D,' 
because  they  don't  feel  sure  of  them;  but  if  there  happens 
to  be  one  which  has  been  fulfilled  to  themselves,  that  one 
they  mark  '  G.' 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.         41 

Now,  that  isn't  the  way  to  treat  God's  promises.  You  ought 
to  mark  every  one  of  them  G-O-O-D,  good.  Heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away  before  one  word  of  them  shall  fail.  If 
we  could  only  get  these  Christians  out  of  Doubting  Castle, 
how  rich  they  would  be,  and  what  a  work  of  grace  there  might 
be !  O  these  devil's  '  ifs ! '  When  shall  we  ever  get  rid  of 
them  ?  " 

MOODY  AND  SANKEY  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND. 

On  the  seventh  of  June,  1872,  Mr.  Moody  with  his  family — 
wife,  son,  and  daughter — accompanied  by  Mr.  Sankey,  sailed 
from  New  York,  and  arrived  in  Liverpool  on  the  seventeenth. 

On  a  former  visit  to  England,  whither  he  went,  as  he  said, 
"  to  study  the  Bible,"  he  had  received  an  invitation  from 
Rev.  Mr.  Pennefather,  a  clergyman  of  the^ Established  Church 
in  London  ;  and  from  Mr.  Cuthbert  Bainbridge,  a  Wesleyan 
layman  of  Newcastle,  to  come  and  labor  with  them  in  the 
Gospel.  These  two  were  almost  the  only  men  in  Britain  who 
saw  any  thing  remarkable  in  the  blunt  Chicago  evangelist,  and 
when  he  arrived  he  found  that  both  these  men  were  dead. 
Mr.  George  C.  Bennett,  secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  in  the  old  city  of  York,  had  once  written  to 
Mr.  Moody,  inviting  him  to  that  city,  and  thither  he  went  as 
to  the  only  door  open  to  receive  him. 

In  York  and  Sunderland  Messrs.  Moody  .and  Sankey 
preached  and  sung  to  great  crowds  of  people,  who  at  first 
seemed  to  regard  them  as  religious  adventurers;  the  clergy 
meanwhile  looking  on  with  evident  disfavor. 

"  It  is  easier  fighting  the  devil  than  the  minister,"  said 
Moody;  but  still  he  kept  on  with  his  work.  Tracts  and  fly- 
sheets  began  to  appear  against  him  ;  his  methods  were  crit- 
icised; he  was  accused  of  mercenary  motives;  professors  of 
religion  were  made  angry  at  his  plain  way  of  speech  ;  but  still 
he  kept  on  :  God  had  given  him  a  message,  and  he  had  noth- 
ing to  do  but  deliver  it. 

At  Newcastle,  where  he  was  next  invited,  Mr.  Moody  set 
himself  down  before  Great  Britain  with  the  deliberate  deter- 


42   Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

mination  of  conquering  its  prejudices  against  himself,  and  of 
making  his  way  into  the  confidence  of  its  people,  in  order 
to  bring  to  them  the  message  which  he  bore  from  God. 

"  We  have  not  done  much  in  York  and  Sunderland,"  said 
he,  "  because  the  ministers  opposed  us  ;  but  we  are  going  to 
stay  in  Newcastle  till  we  make  an  impression,  and  live  down 
the  prejudices  of  good  people  who  do  not  understand  us." 

During  the  first  week  five  of  the  principal  chapels  of  the 
town  were  placed  at  his  disposal ;  one  after  another,  the  lead- 
ing ministers  joined  hands  with  the  evangelists,  greatly  to 
Mr.  Moody's  delight;  and  before  the  close  of  these  remark- 
able services  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  the 
entire  population  of  the  place  proved  that  the  Lord  hon- 
ored the  faith  of  his  servant.  Not  only  at  Newcastle,  but  in 
all  the  towns  and  villages  over  a  radius  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
miles,  the  revival  flame  was  kindled.  The  committee  who 
managed  the  meetings  were  oppressed  with  delegations  from 
all  quarters,  asking  that  brethren  might  .be  sent  by  Mr.  Moody 
to  hold  meetings  in  their  neighborhoods  ;  and  presently,  the 
number  of  assistants  having  been  greatly  multiplied,  hundreds 
of  those  outside  meetings  were  held,  which  were  almost  in- 
variably marked  with  wonderful  religious  power.  From  this 
time  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  began  to  be  the  most  suc- 
cessful evangelists  in  this  age  of  the  world. 

THE   REVIVAL   IN    SCOTLAND. 

There  were  numbers  of  devout  men  and  women  in  Edin- 
burgh who  for  several  years  had  been  praying  that  God  would 
visit  his  people  in  Scotland  with  some  such  outpouring  of 
his  Spirit  as  had  been  recorded  in  their  earlier  history;  and 
when  they  heard  that  these  strangers  from  America  were  so 
wonderfully  blessed  in  converting  their  English  neighbors, 
they  began,  in  spite  of  all  their  prejudices,  to  say,  "  May  not 
God  bless  Scotland,  as  well  as  England,  by  means  of  Messrs. 
Moody  and  Sankey  ?  "  With  this  thought  and  desire  Revs. 
Messrs.  Kelman  and  Wilson  paid  a  visit  of  observation  to 
Newcastle,  where  they  were  so  much  impressed  with  the  work 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  43 

of  grace,  that  on  their  return  they  advised  that  the  American 
evangelists  be  invited  to  Edinburgh. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  November,  1873,  a  revival  work 
commenced  in  that  city  which  will  be  forever  memorable, 
even  in  the  religious  history  of  that  wonderfully-favored  land. 
The  spacious  Free  Church  Assembly  Hall  was  opened  for 
the  meetings  ;  but  from  the  first  no  building  could  contain 
the  congregations  which  pressed  to  hear  this  speaker  and 
singer.  Three  or  four  of  the  largest  halls  and  churches  were 
constantly  in  requisition ;  and  even  then  it  was  necessary  to 
attend  an  hour  or  two  before  the  time  appointed,  in  order  to 
be  sure  of  admittance. 

Mr.  Moody's  use  of  the  Bible  was  greatly  enjoyed  by  his 
brethren  in  Edinburgh.  They  also  were  mighty  in  the  Script- 
ures; and  their  people  had  been  diligently  instructed  in  the 
word  of  God.  The  texts  of  Holy  Writ  which  were  stored 
away  in  their  memories  seemed  like  the  bones  in  the  prophet's 
vision,  waiting  for  some  one  appointed  of  God  to  come  and 
breathe  upon  them.  This  Mr.  Moody  did;  and  straight- 
way, in  thousands  and  thousands  of  minds,  the  bones  began 
to  come  together,  "bone  to  his  bone."  The  whole  system 
of  salvation  rose  up  before  their  consciences.  It  seemed  as 
if  the  sacrifice  on  these  Scottish  altars  had  been  ready  and 
waiting  for  the  fire;  and  when  this  man  of  God  began  to 
preach  and  pray  the  fire  of  the  Lord  came  down.  There 
were  multitudes  of  souls  that  were  like  ships  waiting  outside 
the  bar  for  the  flood-tide  to  carry  them  into  the  harbor;  and 
now  the  great  tidal  wave  had  reached  them,  and  was  sweep- 
ing them  into  the  Church. 

The  religious  interest  soon  spread,  not  only  through  Edin- 
burgh and  Leith,  but  throughout  the  whole  of  Scotland.  The 
Evangelistic  Committee,  which  was  raised  for  the  manage- 
ment of  the  services,  was  here,  as  at  Newcastle,  pressed  to 
send  messengers  bearing  the  glad  tidings  to  distant  towns  and 
villages:  the  whole  population  were  talking  of  Mr.  Moody 
and  his  preaching,  and  of  Mr.  Sankey  and  his  singing,  and 
the  newspapers  were  filled  with   reports  of  their  meetings. 


44      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

The  London  press  began  to  take  great  notice  of  the  move- 
ment, and  before  many  weeks  the  news  of  this  wonderful 
revival  found  a  place  in  the  cable-telegraph  dispatches. 

In  thousands  of  Christian  households  the  deepest  interest 
was  felt  by  parents  for  their  children,  and  by  masters  and 
mistresses  for  their  servants ;  and  so  universal  was  this,  that 
Dr.  Horatius  Bonar  declares  his  belief"  that  there  was  scarce- 
ly a  Christian  household  in  all  Edinburgh  in  which  there 
were  not  one  or  more  persons  converted  during  this  revival." 

The  leading  ministers  of  all  orders  rallied  to  the  support 
of  the  movement :  a  large  number  of  them  united  in  a  spe- 
cial call  to  prayer,  which  was  widely  circulated,  and  the  day 
appointed  for  that  purpose  was  solemnly  observed  by  the 
Churches  in  all  parts  of  Scotland. 

Dr.  Bonar  says,  "  It  was  not  only  in  the  regions  round 
about  the  Free  Assembly  Hall,  and  in  other  choice  localities 
in  Edinburgh  and  Leith,  but  also  among  the  poor  and  neg- 
lected populations  of  the  Canongate  and  Cowgate  that  the 
revival  tide  was  observed  to  be  rising.  God  seemed,  indeed, 
to  be  blessing  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men.  A  mer- 
chant, whose  place  of  business  was  in  a  neighborhood  where 
drunken  men  and  women  frequently  passed  his  door,  de- 
clared that  the  influence  of  the  revival  was  plainly  apparent 
among  the  lower  classes;  for,  since  it  began,  he  had  seen 
very  few  persons  passing  his  place  in  a  state  of  intoxication. 
A  confectioner,  whose  trade  consisted  chiefly  in  providing  ball 
suppers,  was  disgusted  with  the  revival ;  it  almost  spoiled  his 
business." 

The  Christian  Convention,  now  so  familiar  as  one  of  Mr. 
Moody's  methods  of  work,  was  tried  in  Edinburgh  with  won- 
derful success;  not  only  on  account  of  the  interest  of  the 
exercises  themselves,  but  also  on  account  of  the  unprece- 
dented union  and  harmony  of  ministers  of  various  sects 
which  had  been  sorely  at  variance  by  reason  of  historic  dis- 
sensions, but  which  had  now,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
been  united  in  the  bonds  of  perfectness  and  peace. 

From    Edinburgh    Messrs.    Moody   and    Sankey   went    to 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  45 

Glasgow,  where  the  same  wonders  of  grace  were  repeated  to 
an  extent  which  may  be  understood  from  the  statement  of 
Dr.  Andrew  Bonar,  at  the  Mildmay  Park  meeting,  when  the 
evangelists  were  about  returning  to  America,  that  during  the 
year  beginning  with  the  Glasgow  revival  seven  thousand  souls 
had  been  gathered  into  the  various  churches  of  that  city. 

The  evangelists  next  made  a  tour  into  the  north  of  Scotland, 
laboring  with  great  success  at  Perth,  Dundee,  Aberdeen,  El- 
gin, Inverness,  etc.,  closing  with  a  service  at  John  o'Groat's 
House,  the  northernmost  rock  of  Scotland. 

In  Ireland,  at  Belfast,  Londonderry,  and  notably  at  Dublin, 
the  evangelists  were  received  with  great  delight ;  and,  what 
was  thought  to  be  remarkable,  the  Papists  as  well  as  Protest- 
ants attended  their  meetings,  until  Cardinal  Cullen,  seeing 
his  flock  straying  in  such  large  numbers  into  this  heretical 
pasture,  published  an  interdict  forbidding  such  conduct, 
which,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  conversion  of  sinners  of 
Romish  proclivities. 

At  one  time,  when  some  of  the  brethren  were  speaking, 
with  glad  surprise,  of  the  many  Roman  Catholic  converts 
Mr.  Moody  interposed  the  remark:  "Why  should  we  distin- 
guish between  different  kinds  of  converts  ?  Are  we  not  all 
one  in  Christ?"  On  this  account,  no  doubt,  it  was  that  the 
Catholics  in  Dublin  manifested  so  little  hostility  toward  Mr. 
Moody,  lie  was  a  good  Protestant,  of  course  ;  but  still  more 
was  he  a  Christian.  Mr.  Sankey  was  also  in  high  favor  with 
the  Irish  people  ;  the  sweetness  and  enthusiasm  of  his  sing- 
ing going  straight  to  their  hearts,  and  in  Dublin,  more  than 
anywhere  else,  winning  them  to  the  Saviour  with  his  Gospel 
songs. 

Out  of  the  great  congregations  which  thronged  the  Dublin 
Crystal  Palace,  as  many  as  seven  hundred  persons  sometimes 
remained  for  personal  instruction,  and  these  inquiry  meetings, 
impressive  beyond  description,  were  often  held  till  eleven 
o'clock  at  night.  From  Dublin,  as  from  the  other  great 
revival  centers,  the  work  of  grace  seemed  to  radiate  all  over 
the  north  of  Ireland.     It  was  only  necessary  to  announce  a 


46       Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

revival  service,  with  perhaps  a  mention  of  the  name  of  Mr. 
Moody  or  Mr.  Sankey,  or  of  the  great  revival  in  Dublin,  and 
the  people,  for  miles  around,  would  come  together,  not  know- 
ing who  were  to  speak,  or  whether  there  would  be  any 
speakers  at  all.  If  some  of  the  men  were  present  who  had 
been  to  the  Dublin  meetings  the  crowd  of  listeners"  were  sat- 
isfied with  the  simplest  account  of  their  experience  and 
observation.  If  no  such  persons  appeared,  perhaps  some- 
body had  one  of  Mr.  Sankey's  hymn  books,  from  which  he 
could  sing;  and  the  song  would  be  blessed  to  the  awakening 
of  sinners  and  the  comfort  of  believers.  From  the  smallest 
sowing  of  these  seeds  of  grace  great  harvests  were  gathered 
all  over  the  northern  portion  of  the  island  ;  and  the  work  con- 
tinued with  such  a  power  of  blessing  that  the  brethren  in 
Dublin  almost  began  to  hope  that  all  Ireland  was  to  be  saved. 

THE   LONDON   REVIVALS. 

In  the  beginning  of  December,  1874,  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr. 
Sankey  returned  to  England  ;  and,  after  a  series  of  meetings 
in  the  cities  of  Manchester,  Sheffield,  Birmingham,  and  Liver- 
pool, which  occupied  the  months  of  December,  January,  and 
February,  and  whose  history  would  make  a  volume  of  itself, 
they  entered  upon  their  long  contemplated  work  in  London. 

The  British  metropolis  cannot  be  properly'described  as  a 
city;  it  is  a  vast  assemblage  of  cities;  and  its  people,  unlike 
those  of  the  places  where  the  evangelists  had  hitherto  been 
laboring,  had  very  few  points  in  common.  Each  minister 
and  congregation  formed  a  separate  community  ;  watchfully 
caring  for  its  own  progress,  but  strongly  tempted,  by  sharp 
competition,  to  leave  all  outside  Christian  enterprises  to  take 
care  of  themselves. 

The  magnitude  of  the  attempt  to  reach  and  move  the  great 
metropolis  may  appear  in  the  fact  that  in  the  north  quarter 
of  London,  where  the  meetings  first  commenced,  the  sin- 
gle parish  of  Islington,  which  is  only  about  one  third  of  this 
north  quarter,  contains  a  population  equal  to  Liverpool  or 
Chicago;  while  in  the  whole  of  North  London,  as  marked  on 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  47 

Mr.  Moody's  map,  there  are  nearly  a  million  of  souls.  His 
plan  was  to  hold  a  separate  series  of  meetings  in  the  four  sep- 
arate divisions,  in  the  following  order,  North,  East,  West,  and 
South  London,  beginning  with  the  North,  because  it  con- 
tained the  famous  Agricultural  Hall,  the  only  available  au- 
ditorium in  London  large  enough  for  his  purpose.  Under 
its  arched  roof  of  glass  and  iron  is  an  area  where  thousands 
of  cattle  are  exhibited  in  pens  and  stalls,  and  where  horses 
in  great  numbers  march  in  grand  processions.  Twenty  or 
thirty  hunters  at  once  are  here  put  through  their  trials  of 
jumping  and  running.  These  facts,  better  than  any  figures 
which  may  be  given,  will  serve  to  indicate  the  immense  size 
of  the  great  hall  of  the  Agricultural  Society.  Mr.  Moody, 
with  his  experience  of  the  Crystal  Palace  in  Dublin,  Bingley 
Hall  in  Birmingham,  and  the  great  Victoria  Hall  at  Liverpool, 
was  only  too  glad  to  find  such  an  audience-room  in  which  to 
preach  the  Gospel ;  and  during  the  first  week  of  meetings 
here  the  congregations  averaged  about  eighteen  thousand.  It 
was  found  impossible,  however,  to  reach  the  ear  of  so  large  an 
audience,  and  the  hall  was  reduced  by  partitions  to  the  ca- 
pacity of  about  fourteen  thousand.  In  this  shape  it  was  con- 
stantly overcrowded,  every  seat  being  sometimes  occupied  for 
half  an  hour  before  the  time  of  service. 

For  each  of  the  four  quarters  a  local  secretary  was  ap- 
pointed, who,  under  the  direction  of  the  central  committee, 
attended  to  the  advertising  and  necessary  arrangements  for 
the  meetings.  The  attitude  of  many  of  the  pastors  was  at 
first  one  of  observation  and  armed  neutrality  ;  though  from 
the  beginning  a  few  of  the  most  honored  ministers,  both  of 
the  Established  and  Nonconformist  Churches,  gave  their 
heartiest  co-operation.  The  cautious  brethren  occupied  the 
platform  by  hundreds;  but  very  few  of  them  were  willing  to 
assist  at  the  inquiry  meetings,  or  in  any  way  to  identify  them- 
selves with  Mr.  Moody  and  his  work.  Still  the  number  of 
those  who  were  awakened  under  the  preaching,  as  well  as 
under  the  singing,  increased  from  week  to  week,  and  after  the 
public  service  was  over,  Mr.  Moody  would  often  find,  in  one 


48        Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

of  the  anterooms,  a  hundred  men  awaiting  his  instruction ; 
Mr.  Sankey,  in  another  room,  would  address  seventy  or  eighty 
women ;  in  the  gallery  specially  set  apart  for  inquirers,  there 
would  be  sometimes  four  or  five  hundred  persons  conversing, 
two  by  two,  about  the  salvation  of  their  souls;  while  here  and 
there,  in  groups  scattered  about  the  great  hall,  anxious  sin- 
ners were  eagerly  listening  while  some  Christian  worker,  who 
had  been  duly  appointed  to  this  task,  pointed  them  to  the  cross 
of  Calvary. 

The  noonday  revival  prayer-meetings  in  London  were  oc- 
casions of  the  deepest  interest,  and  were  usually  led  by  Mr. 
Moody  himself;  first  in  Exeter  Hall,  then  in  the  Haymarket 
Opera  House,  and  afterward  in  some  one  of  the  tabernacles 
or  revival  "  halls,"  at  which  requests  for  prayer  were  read 
from  all  over  Great  Britain. 

The  different  localities  were  also  strikingly  indicated. 

At  Bow  Road  Hall,  in  the  East  End,  among  a  population 
where  gin-palaces  and  wretched  dwellings  abound,  requests 
would  come  up  for  prayer  on  behalf  of  convicted  dog- fight- 
ers, publicans,  intemperate  women,  and  persons  who  had  been 
converted,  but  who  were  forced  to  live  in  wicked  communi- 
ties, like  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves.  At  the  Opera  House 
in  the  West  End  the  wealth  and  culture  of  its  society  were 
apparent,  not  only  in  the  wording  of  the  letters,  but  also  in 
the  character  of  the  requests  themselves.  Prayer  was  sought 
for  sons  in  the  army  and  navy  ;  for  sons  consecrated  to  the 
holy  ministry,  who  had  broken  away  from  restraints  and  en- 
tered upon  worldly  lives  ;  for  absent  relatives  in  India  ;  for 
persons  in  danger  of  blacksliding  by  reason  of  worldly  pros- 
perity ;  and  those  in  danger  of  ruin  by  the  pleasures  and  vices 
of  fashionable  life. 

One  day,  as  if  to  bring  the  two  extremes'  together,  a  poor 
woman  in  Newgate  prison,  condemned  to  death,  sent  a  re- 
quest for  prayer  to  be  read  at  Her  Majesty's  Opera  House  ; 
on  hearing  which  the  great  congregation,  largely  composed 
of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  London,  seemed  to  be  touched 
with  pity,  and  joined  in  prayer  for  the  soul  of  this  poor  crim- 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  49 

inal  in  a  manner  which  showed  that  the  Lord  himself  was 
in  it. 

Two  immense  tabernacles  were  erected  for  Mr.  Moody  ; 
one  at  the  East  End,  on  Bow  Road,  and  one  in  the  South 
quarter,  called  Camberwell  Hall.  They  were  very  nearly  alike 
except  in  size,  the  former  holding  ten  thousand,  and  the  lat- 
ter eight  thousand  people.  In  the  West  End  the  meetings 
were  held  in  the  Haymarkef  Opera  House,  long  closed  to  its 
ordinary  uses  by  reason  of  legal  complications,  but  just  the 
place  for  revival  work. 

Some  solicitude  had  been  felt  by  many  of  Mr.  Moody's 
friends  lest  the  wonderful  success  which  had  attended  him 
elsewhere  might  not  follow  him  into  the  circles  of  wealth, 
nobility,  and  fashion  ;  but  Mr.  Moody  himself  seems  to  have 
had  no  anxiety  upon  this  point.  With  him,  a  sinner  riding 
in  a  carriage  emblazoned  with  a  coat  of  arms  was  just  as 
much  in  need  of  a  Saviour  as  the  poor  dog-fighter  who  one 
day  came  up  from  Shoreditch  to  relate  his  experience  of  con- 
version. It  was  his  calling  to  preach  the  Gospel  here,  as  he 
had  preached  it  elsewhere  ;  and  his  simple,  manly  earnest- 
ness, and  utter  forgetfulness  of  himself,  soon  won  for  him  not 
only  the  respect,  but  the  admiration  of  those  cultivated 
noblemen  and  ladies,  than  whom  no  people  in  the  world  are 
more  ready  to  honor  genuine  excellence,  or  to  acknowledge 
real  genius  or  piety.  To  them  Mr.  Moody  was  a  rare  Chris- 
tian :  the  fact  that  he  was  not  a  scholar  was  forgotten. 

The  grand  tier,  as  the  first  gallery  in  the  Opera  House  is 
called,  had  been,  by  time-honored  custom,  reserved  for  the 
nobility;  and  it  was  noticed,  in  the  rush  for  tickets,  by  which 
it  was  necessary  to  divide  the  crowds  pressing  for  one  of  the 
five  thousand  seats  in  the  building,  that  applications  for 
places  in  the  grand  tier  proportionally  outnumbered  those 
for  seats  in  any  other  part  of  the  building. 

A  considerable  number  of  persons  followed  in  the  wake  ot 
this  great  series  of  revivals  ;  removing  their  residence  as  the 
place  cf  meeting  was  removed.  Some  of  these  persons,  emi- 
nent for  their  piety  and  zeal,  were  greatly  ble.>sed  in  winning 
3 


50       Moody  :  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

souls  to  Christ.  Mr.  Moody  mentioned  a  lady  whose  name, 
if  given,  would  at  once  be  widely  and  honorably  recognized, 
who  had  labored  in  the  inquiry  room  ever  since  the  meetings 
at  Edinburgh,  and  who,  up  to  that  time — the  last  week  but 
one  of  the  two  years'  campaign — had  been  the  means  of 
bringing  a  hundred  and  fifty  souls  to  the  Saviour. 

The  Lord  Chancellor  of  England  said  of  Mr.  Moody : 
"  He  gives  me  a  new  conception  of  preaching."  He  was  evi- 
dently doing  the  same  for  others.  His  apt  illustrations  were 
taken  up  and  passed  around  by  the  press  and  the  people;  his 
Bible  readings  were  reviewed  and  praised  as  the  very  marrow 
and  fatness  of  the  Gospel ;  indeed,  the  Bible,  in  his  use  of  it, 
came  to  be  a  popular  book  among  all  classes,  but  it  was  the 
constant  wonder  to  many  that  he  should  be  able  to  find  so 
much  in  it  that  was  so  interesting. 

On  Sunday,  the  eleventh  of  July,  1873,  Mr.  Moody  preached 
his  farewell  sermon  at  Camberwell  Hall,  and  in  a  few  days 
more  set  sail  for  America. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  results  of  the  four  great  re- 
vivals in  London.  To  say  that  the  "  ten  thousand  souls  for 
Christ  "  which  Mr.  Moody  gave  as  the  motive  of  his  journey 
were  given  him  in  Edinburgh  and  London  alone,  might  not 
be  overstating  the  case  ;  while  the  fruits  of  incidental  re- 
vivals in  other  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  throughout 
the  whole  of  Christendom  can  only  be  estimated  by  Him  who 
knoweth  all  things,  and  in  whose  keeping  are  the  records 
which  we  call  the  Book  of  Life. 


BROOKLYN,   PHILADELPHIA,    AND   NEW  YORK. 

"This  looks  like  slow  work,"  said  Dr.  Cuyler  to  Mr.  Moody 
one  winter  morning  in  1872,  when  he  was  holding  his  first 
little  meetings  in  Brooklyn  at  the  Calvary  Chapel  of  Lafayette 
Avenue  Church.  Then  a  handful  of  praying  people  were  all 
that  assembled  to  hear  him.  Now  the  community  almost  en 
masse  are  thronging  to  the  Rink  in  which  the  Moody  and 
Sankey  revival  meetings  were  held. 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Mood  v.  5! 

What  a  change  has  come  over  the  man  ?  Much  the  same 
that  came  over  Moses  during  his  forty  years  of  exile  from 
Egypt.  He  was  a  learner  in  the  word  in  those  days,  now  he 
is  a  master;  but  now,  as  then,  his  transcendent  power  over 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  comes  from  his  simple,  earnest, 
vital  faith  in  the  life  and  power  of  God's  word. 

On  the  twenty-fourth  of  October,  1874,  the  evangelists 
commenced  their  labors  in  Brooklyn,  a  city  famous  the  world 
over  for  its  powerful  preachers  and  its  efficient  means  of 
grace.  It  was  a  little  like  "carrying  coals  to  Newcastle;" 
but  Mr.  Moody  presumed  that  in  such  a  favored  locality 
trained  helpers  would  not  be  wanting,  and  from  his  large  ac- 
quaintance with  cities  in  general  he  was  sure  that  even  in 
Brooklyn  there  were  plenty  of  sinners  who  needed  to  be 
converted. 

Before  Brooklyn  had  fully  realized  its  duty  and  its  oppor- 
tunity the  time  set  for  the  opening  of  the  work  in  Philadel- 
phia arrived,  and  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  left  the  City  of 
Churches  while  the  work  was  only  begun.  Still  it  was  a  glori- 
ous beginning,  and  a  glorious  continuance  was  possible  by  those 
who  had  learned  the  secret  of  power  with  Cod  and  man. 

The  Philadelphia  revival  may  be  described  as  a  Pentecost, 
continuing  for  nearly  two  months  ;  it  was  a  new  revelation  of 
the  power  of  the  Gospel,  and  marked  the  opening  of  a  new 
era  of  Christian  labor  and  fellowship  in  the  city  of  Brotherly 
Love. 

"  I  wish  I  could  carry  this  hall  around  the  world  to  preach 
in,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  so  much  was  he  pleased  with  Bingley 
Hall,  in  Birmingham,  England  ;  but  the  old  Pennsylvania  rail- 
road freight  depot,  transformed  into  a  Tabernacle,  was  not  less 
perfectly  adapted  to  the  various  requirements  of  the  great 
revival.  This  immense  structure,  in  the  midst  of  the  business 
portion  of  the  city,  corner  of  Market  and  Thirteenth  streets 
had  a  front  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and  a  depth  of 
three  hundred  and  seventy-three  feet.  It  had  ceased  to  be 
used  as   a  depot,  and   had   recently  been   purchased  by  Mr. 


52        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

John  Wannamaker.  at  a  cost  of  half  a  million  or  so,  as  a  site 
for  his  new  place  of  business.  This  gentleman,  who  is  one 
of  the  long-time  friends  and  co-workers  of  Mr.  Moody,  gen- 
erously gave  the  use  of  the  property,  and  personally  superin- 
tended the  work  of  its  reconstruction. 

The  text  of  Mr.  Moody's  opening  sermon  was:  "  Say  not 
ye,  There  are  yet  four  months,  and  then  cometh  harvest  ? 
Behold,  I  say  unto  you,  Lift  up  your  eyes,  and  look  on  the 
fields;  for  they  are  white  already  to  harvest." 

It  is  one  of  Mr.  Moody's  strong  points  that  he  is  always  in 
the  midst  of  his  theme  ;  to  his  mind  all  things  are  now  ready ; 
the  Gospel  is  now  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation ;  and 
when  he  preaches  it  he  takes  it  for  granted  that  people  will  at 
once  believe  it,  and  be  saved  by  it.  He  does  not  creep  along 
four  months  in  the  rear  of  a  promise;  the  only  slow  element  in 
the  matter  of  salvation,  as  he  understands  it,  is  the  slow  faith 
of  believers. 

An  eminent  pastor  says  of  him  :  "  His  running  expositions 
are  as  full  of  richness  as  a  Bartlett  pear.  They  teach  us  min- 
isters how  to  squeeze  honey  out  of  the  word."  "  I  like  to 
go  all  round  a  text,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  "  to  see  what's  after  and 
before.     I  find  often  it  is  like  a  little  diamond  set  in  pearls." 

An  adequate  account  of  this  great  revival  would  require  a 
volume  instead  of  a  few  pages.  The  Christian  Convention 
held  at  the  depot,  January  19,  at  which  nearly  a  thousand 
ministers  were  present  ;  the  temperance  movement  organ- 
ized in  Philadelphia  by  a  large  number  of  reformed  and 
converted  drunkards;  the  branch  revival  at  the  gas-works, 
where  prayer-meetings  were  sometimes  kept  up  all  night  by 
the  different  relays  of  hands  as  they  were  relieved  from  duty  ; 
the  unanimity  of  the  secular  press  in  their  praise  of  the  work 
accomplished,  in  which  also  the  Roman  Catholic  papers 
joined,  and  the  general  awakening  of  the  Church  to  a  con- 
dition of  vigor,  activity,  and  Christian  unity,  were  occasions 
of  gratitude  to  God  ;  and  the  fruits  of  this  revival  still  remain 
in  permanent  and  widely  extending  powers  of  blessing. 

Dr.  Hatfield  relates  the  case  of  a  man  who  came  into  one 


UJj± 


-l-;::iitn.  tJ', 

srriTrK' 


- 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  53 

of  the  Philadelphia  meetings,  half-intoxicated,  but,  having  still 
a  sense  of  his  need  for  help,  he  tried  to  rise  for  prayers.  His 
condition  was  so  evident  that  those  who  were  near  him  pulled 
him  down,  thinking  his  conduct  almost  blasphemous  ;  but  he 
persisted  in  standing  up,  and  as  the  drunkenness  passed  away, 
he  persisted  in  seeking  the  Saviour.  On  his  way  home  that 
night  his  soul  was  gloriously  filled  with  the  grace  of  God,  of 
which  his  life  thus  far  gives  good  evidence.  And  since  that 
night  he  declares  he  has  been  entirely  free  from  the  appetite 
for  strong  drink. 

The  final  meeting,  at  which  Mr.  Moody  gave  his  farewell 
charge  to  the  converts  of  the  revival,  was  held  on  Friday 
evening,  February  4,  1876.  Three  thousand  persons  of  this 
class  received  tickets  of  admission,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
estimate  the  number  of  those  who  had  been  blessed  by  means 
of  the  revival  who  lived  out  of  the  city,  or  for  other  reasons 
could  not  be  present. 

Before  the  sermon  Mr.  Moody  took  up  a  collection  in  aid 
of  the  new  building  of  the  Philadelphia  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  amounting  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars.  The  cost  of  fitting  up  the  building  and  of 
carrying  on  the  meeting  was  about  thirty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars, all  of  which  was  cheerfully  contributed. 

Some  interesting  statistics  have  been  preserved  of  the  meet- 
ing at  the  Depot  Church.  The  aggregate  attendance  from 
November  21,  1875,  to  February  4,  1876,  was  one  million  and 
fifty  thousand.  On  one  Sunday  twenty-eight  thousand  dif- 
ferent people  were  in  attendance,  in  a  single  week  a  com- 
mittee of  ladies  gave  out  nineteen  thousand  tickets  to  women 
for  afternoon,  and  men  for  evening  Sunday  services,  all  of 
whom  gave  their  names  and  addresses  as  persons  who  were 
not  Christians.  The  average  daily  attendance  was  twenty- 
two  thousand  people. 

On  Monday  evening,  February  7,  1S75,  Messrs.  Moody  and 
Sankey  opened  their  memorable  revival  services  in  the  Hip- 
podrome, at  New  York.     This  immense  one-story  structure, 


54       Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

covering  a  whole  square,  was  originally  the  depot  of  the 
Harlem  and  New  Haven  Railroads;  then  it  became  famous 
as  Barnum's  Hippodrome;  later  it  was  used  for  Gilmore's 
monster  concerts.  When  Mr.  Varley,  from  England,  preached 
here,  some  time  before,  there  was  a  menagerie  in  another  part 
of  the  building,  and  the  roar  of  wild  beasts  sometimes 
mingled  with  the  sound  of  prayer  and  praise.  The  Exec- 
utive Committee  secured  this  place  for  the  meetings  at  a 
weekly  rental  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  the  preparations 
cost  about  ten  thousand  dollars. 

The  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee,  Mr.  William  E. 
Dodge,  and  his  efficient  helpers,  had  studied  the  requirements 
of  the  occasion,  and  by  wisdom  borrowed  from  the  meetings 
elsewhere,  and  a  liberal  use  of  money  and  labor,  they  trans- 
formed the  huge  structure  into  a  most  complete  revival 
tabernacle. 

Before  the  close  of  the  first  week  the  aggregate  daily  at- 
tendance reached  twenty  thousand,  and  nearly  two  thousand 
inquirers  were  daily  seeking  the  way  of  life.  Mr.  Moody 
preached  the  same  sermons  as  at  previous  meetings,  though 
it  was  noticed  that  he  preached  with  more  power  than  in 
Brooklyn.  Then  it  was  a  momentous  experiment ;  now  it  was 
and  assured  success. 

One  notable  feature  of  the  meetings  was,  the  hold  they  took 
upon  "the  brown-stone-front  people,"  as  one  minister  called 
them ;  and  another  feature,  not  less  notable,  was  their  influ- 
ence upon  the  lowest  classes  of  society. 

Among  other  mighty  works  of  God  in  this  revival  was 
the  conversion  of  a  confirmed  opium-eater,  from  whom  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  driven  out  that  horrible  devil,  leaving  no 
traces  of  an  appetite  which  is  supposed  to  be  unconquerable 
and  the  next  strongest  thing  to  death. 

The  Friday  noon  prayer-meeting  at  the  Hippodrome  was  a 
temperance  prayer-meeting,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hepworth,  who 
had  charge  of  the  requests  for  prayers,  says  that  more  re- 
quests came  in  to  pray  for  drunkards  than  for  any  other  class 
of  persons. 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  55 

Among  the  striking  cases  of  reformation  was  that  of  an  En- 
glishman, who  described  himself  as  having  led  a  very  fast  life 
in  London  for  ten  years,  breaking  all  the  commandments,  and 
being  at  length  obliged  to  leave  the  country  to  escape  punish- 
ment of  the  law.  For  several  weeks  before  he  had  been  under 
deep  conviction  of  sin,  and  had  resolved  to  turn  moralist,  with 
the  hope  of  quieting  his  conscience.  "  I  resolved,"  said  he, 
"and  failed.  The  appetite  for  drink  was  stronger  than  I  was. 
At  length  I  thought  I  would  try  an  experiment,  and  speak  the 
name  of  Jesus  every  time  the  appetite  came  over  me  ;  and  the 
name  of  Jesus,  though  I  prayed  in  no  other  form,  saved  me 
from  my  old  enemy  for  several  weeks."  The  man  was  soon 
after  clearly  converted  at  one  of  Mr.  Moody's  meetings. 

A  few  days  before  the  close  of  the  services  Mr.  Moody 
received  another  "  Thank  Offering"  on  behalf  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  at  New  York.  There  was  no 
apparent  effort,  no  persuading,  no  urging,  but  the  money  was 
given  as  a  privilege — bushels  of  it.  Private  subscriptions  by 
thousands  were  made,  one  of  them  for  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
the  entire  amount  raised  being  about  one  hundred  ami  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  which  lifted  the  Association  out  of  debt. 

The  record  of  conversions  has  never  been  made  public ; 
but  at  the  farewell  meeting  there  were  about  five  thousand 
persons  who  came  in  with  "  convert's  tickets,"  while  the  num- 
ber of  those  from  abroad  who  were  blessed  at  occasional 
meetings  and  were  not  able  to  be  present  would  give  the 
evangelists  almost  another  "  ten  thousand  souls  for  Christ." 


CHICAGO  AND   BOSTON. 

After  a  summer  of  rest  Mr.  Moody  and  his  friend,  Mr. 
Sankev,  with  a  considerable  band  of  trained  Gospel  workers, 
commenced,  on  the  first  day  of  October,  1876,  the  Chicago 
revival  campaign. 

The  fact  that  these  Gospel  meetings  have  outgrown  the 
church  architecture  of  their  times,  and  that,  for  the  sake  of 
securing  them,  it  has  come  to  be  the  custom  to  erect  large 


56        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

halls  for  their  accommodation,  ten  times  the  size  of  the  aver- 
age churches,  is  proof  that  the  Christian  people  of  these  days 
regard  the  coming  of  this  gospel  preacher  and  this  gospel 
singer  as  a  very  unusual  blessing. 

The  Chicago  Tabernacle,  whose  erection  is  largely  due 
to  the  enterprise  and  labor  of  the  Hon.  J.  V.  Farwell,  was 
planned  to  hold  eight  thousand  people.  Instead  of  a  rough- 
and-ready  structure  for  a  temporary  purpose,  the  basement 
and  first  and  second  story  walls  of  a  first-class  wholesale 
business  house  were  put  up,  giving  the  best  accommodations 
for  the  meetings  ever  furnished,  except  at  the  Hippodrome. 

The  preparation  for,  and  the  management  of,  the  meet- 
ings was  placed  *in  the  hands  of  the  executive  committee, 
of  which  W.  T.  Harvey,  Esq.,  was  the  chairman,  and  which 
comprised  the  names  of  some  of  Chicago's  most  eminent  lay- 
men. There  was  also  a  devotional  committee,  comprising 
the  names  of  equally  eminent  clergymen. 

A  special  prayer-meeting  had  been  held  in  Farwell  Hall 
for  two  or  three  months,  which  had  been  largely  attended  by 
the  clergy  of  the  city,  as  well  as  the  more  active  members  of 
their  Churches,  so  that  when  Mr.  Moody  commenced  to  preach 
and  Mr.  Sankey  commenced  to  sing,  it  might  be  said  that 
the  air  was  full  of  revival. 

In  reference  to  his  former  life  and  work  in  Chicago,  Mr. 
Moody  related  the  following  personal  incident : — 

"For  a  long  time  I  used  to  be  the  laughing-stock  of  this 
community,  because  I  used  to  stop  people  on  the  street  and 
elsewhere  and  talk  to  them  about  their  souls;  but  that  was 
the  school  in  which  I  learned  to  preach  the  Gospel.  It  was 
my  rule  to  speak  to  some  one  every  day.  One  night  as  I 
was  going  home,  when  I  got  as  far  as  the  corner  of  Clark  and 
Lake  streets  I  remembered  that  I  hadn't  spoken  to  any  un- 
converted man  that  day  about  his  soul.  But  just  then  I  hap- 
pened to  see  a  man  leaning  up  against  the  lamp-post,  so  I 
went  up  and  put  my  hand  on  his  shoulder,  and  asked  him  if 
he  loved  the  Lord.  He  was  very  angry;  turned  round  and 
cursed  me ;  and  afterward  went  to  a  friend  of  mine  and  said. 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  57 

If  you  have  any  influence  with  that  man  Moody,  I  wish  you 
would  tell  him  to  stop  his  impudence.  He  is  doing  more 
harm  than  any  ten  men  in  Chicago.'  My  friend  came  and 
tried  to  persuade  me  that  I  was  doing  mischief  by  speaking 
to  strangers  that  way;  hut  I  replied  that  God  hadn't  showed 
it  to  me  in  that  light,  and  until  he  did  I  should  keep  right  on 
as  before. 

"  Well,  a  little  while  after  that,  when  I  used  to  live  up  in 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  rooms,  and  was  jani- 
tor, and  sexton,  and  secretary,  and  what-not,  very  early  one 
morning  I  heard  a  rap  at  my  door,  and,  as  soon  as  I  could 
dress  me,  I  opened  it,  and  there  stood  a  man  who  was  a  per- 
fect stranger. 

"'Don't  you  know  me?'  he  asked;  'I  am  the  man  that 
cursed  you  for  asking  him  about  his  soul  down  there  at  the 
corner  of  Clark  and  Lake  streets.  I  haven't  had  a  minute's 
peace  since,  and  now  I  am  come  to  ask  you  to  pray  for  me.'  " 
As  usual  Mr.  Moody  appointed  his  Sunday  meetings  in 
Chicago  so  as  to  conflict  as  little  as  possible  with  the  regular 
church  services,  namely,  at  8  A.M.  and  at  4  P.M.,  and  after 
the  second  week  at  3  P.M.  also. 

Just  at  the  stroke  of  eight  Mr.  Moody  appeared  and  began 
the  opening  service  in  his  blunt  straightforward  way  by  say- 
ing :  "  I  want  to  give  you  a  passage  from  the  word  of  God  as 
a  kind  of  watch-word  for  these  meetings  :  "  Not  by  might,  nor 
by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord." 

During  the  first  week  the  audiences  may  be  set  down  at  an 
aggregate  of  eighty  thousand,  with  uncounted  thousands  more 
who  were  turned  away  for  want  of  room. 

At  the  opening  of  his  work  in  Chicago  Mr.  Moody  was 
deeply  impressed  with  the  fact  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
tearing  down  to  be  done  before  he  could  successfully  build, 
and  the  exceedingly  plain  dealing  which  the  Chicago  min- 
isters and  Church  members  received  at  his  hands,  during  the 
first  few  days  of  the  meeting,  must  have  reminded  them  of 
the  words  of  the  psalmist,  "Let  the  righteous  smite  me;  it 
shall  be  a  kindness :  and  let  him  reprove  me  ;  it  shall  be  an 
3* 


58        Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

excellent  oil,  which  shall  not  break  my  head."  His  over- 
flowing affection  and  tearful  tenderness  was  manifest  in  every 
word.  He  evidently  had  no  wish  to  hurt  people,  but  in  his 
gospel  surgery  he  used  a  keen  knife,  and  every  stroke  cut  to 
the  bone.  His  hearers  winced  and  wept,  but  if  they  were 
angry  with  any  one  it  was  not  with  the  preacher,  but  with 
themselves ;  and  straightway  many  began  to  turn  to  God. 

On  the  day  when  the  Scripture  lesson  was  from  the  text 
beginning  with  the  words,  "  O  Lord,  thou  hast  searched  me 
and  known  me,"  Mr.  Moody  said :  "  It  is  easy  enough  to  ask 
God  to  search  other  people,  but  the  difficulty  is  in  being 
willing  to  be  searched  ourselves.  If  we  search  our  own 
hearts  we  are  very  likely  to  overlook  a  great  many  things,  so 
it  is  a  great  deal  better  to  let  God  do  it  for  us. 

A  man  has  fallen  down  and  broken  his  arm,  and  when  the 
doctor  comes  he  begins  to  put  his  finger  on  the  flesh  and  press 
down  pretty  hard  to  find  out  where  the  break  is.  If  it  doesn't 
hurt  in  one  place  he  moves  his  finger  along,  and  bears  down 
again  and  again ;  by  and  by  the  poor  fellow  cries  out, '  Oh  ! ' 
That  is  just  what  the  doctor  wanted;  the  place  where  it  hurts 
is  the  place  where  it  has  got  to  be  mended." 

To  the  ministers  he  said  :  "We  haven't  got  to  the  bottom 
of  this  business  yet ;  there  is  a  great  deal  of  jealousy  among 
us.  It  is  very  easy  to  sing,  '  O,  to  be  nothing.'  but  to  feel 
that  way  is  not  so  easy.  Can  you  be  happy  over  the  revivals 
which  God  sends  to  the  Churches  of  your  brethren,  when  he 
doesn't  send  any  revival  to  your  Church  ?  Can  the  Baptist 
minister  rejoice  over  the  conversions  that  are  taking  place 
in  the  Methodist  Church  across  the  way,  when  there  is  no 
revival  in  his  own  ?  " 

One  of  the  first  movements  of  Mr.  Moody  was  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.  This  day,  Thurs- 
day, October  12,  was  observed  by  special  services  at  the 
Tabernacle,  and  in  many  of  the  Chicago  Churches,  nor  was 
it  altogether  overlooked  by  Churches  in  other  places. 

On  Friday  evening  of  his  first  week  Mr.  Moody  received  a 
dispatch  from  Northfield,  Mass.,  announcing  the  death  of  his 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  59 

youngest  brother,  Samuel;  and  for  the  sake  of  his  venerable 
mother,  who  leaned  upon  him  more  than  upon  any  of  her 
other  sons,  and  who,  he  felt,  would  need  him  now  more  than 
ever,  he  determined  to  leave  the  meetings  in  charge  of  Mr. 
Sankey,  Major  Whittle,  and  others,  and  return  to  his  old 
home  to  attend  the  funeral. 

On  his  return,  on  Sabbath  morning,  October  16,  he  chose 
for  his  text  the  forty-first  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Gospel  by  John  :  "  He  first  findeth  his  own  brother  Simon, 
and  saith  unto  him,  We  have  found  the  Messias,  which  is, 
being  interpreted,  the  Christ,"  and  proceeded  to  give  to  the 
congregation  of  Christian  workers  an  account  of  4he  conver- 
sion, work,  death,  and  burial  of  his  brother  Samuel,  frequent- 
ly interrupted  by  deep  emotion,  and  of  which  subject  he 
made  this  practical  application  : — 

"  Now  if  you  have  a  brother  out  of  Christ,  go  to  him  as  this 
disciple  did  to  his  brother  Simon.  Begin  with  the  members 
of  your  own  family.  If  you  have  no  brother  of  your  own, 
take  somebody  else's  brother,  and  bring  him  to  Christ;  if 
you  have  no  household  of  your  own,  go  and  bring  the  mem- 
ber of  some  other  family  to  the  Saviour;  but  don't  let  this 
day  pass  before  you  speak  or  write  to  some  friend  of  yours 
who  is  unsaved,  and  invite  him  or  her  to  seek  the  Lord." 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  Chicago  revival 
was  the  Gospel  Temperance  work,  of  which  an  extended  ac- 
count will  be  found  in  Part  V. 

The  Christian  Convention,  which  formed  a  part  of  the 
series  of  revival  meetings,  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
all  this  class  of  special  services.  More  than  a  thousand  min- 
isters and  leading  laymen  from  thirteen  different  States  were 
present,  and  many  of  them  went  home  deeply  impressed  with 
Mr.  Moody's  Bible  work  and  methods  of  Bible  study.  Quite 
a  number  of  them  were  so  much  blessed  with  the  revival 
spirit  that  revivals  presently  broke  out  among  their  own  con- 
gregations. At  the  last  session  of  the  Convention  Mr.  Moody 
proposed  the  formation  of  a  prayer  alliance,  every  member  of 
which  should  be  pledged  to  pray  daily  for  God's  blessing  upon 


60       Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

the  work  of  all  the  other  pastors  who  were  joined  in  covenant 
with  him,  and  in  response  to  this  the  names  of  between  three 
and  four  hundred  ministers  were  given  for  the  alliance. 

For  an  account  of  the  life,  death,  and  memorial  services 
of  Prof.  Bliss,  see  Part  IV. 

The  series  of  meetings  continued  for  sixteen  weeks  with  deep 
and  widespread  interest,  though  with  various  interruptions. 

At  the  farewell  services  a  collection  and  subscription  was 
taken,  under  the  title  of  a  thank-offering,  in  behalf  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  Chicago,  its  debt  and 
its  current  expenses ;  which,  at  the  date  of  this  writing,  has 
already  reached  an  amount  sufficient  to  cover  both  the  funded 
and  floating  debts  on  the  Hall  of  the  Association,  leaving  a 
small  balance  in  the  treasury  with  which  to  carry  on  its  work; 
being  a  total  of  about  seventy  thousand  dollars. 

To  estimate  the  results  of  the  Chicago  revival,  by  the  six 
thousand  persons  whose  names  and  addresses  were  registered 
as  having  been  converted  or  reclaimed,  would  be  to  come 
vastly  short  of  the  proper  reckoning  in  the  case.  Mr.  Moody 
himself  regards  it  as  one  of  the  most  successful  of  all  his  re- 
vival efforts;  and  when  it  is  taken  into  account  that  branch 
revivals  are  appearing  all  over  the  North-west,  whose  begin- 
ning may  be  traced  directly  to  the  influence  of  the  Chicago 
meeting,  it  is  evident  that  the  Lord  has  bestowed  an  immeas- 
urable benediction  upon  Chicago  and  the  North-west  by  the 
hand  of  his  honored  servants  Moody  and  Sankey  and  their 
faithful  co-workers. 

In  his  farewell  address  Mr.  Moody  declared  that  nowhere 
had  he  been  more  ably  and  heartily  assisted,  not  only  by  the 
executive  committee  having  charge  of  the  management  of 
meeting,  but  also  by  the  ministry;  among  whom  there  had 
been  a  perfect  unity  of  feeling,  and  whose  labors,  in  connec- 
tion with  his  own,  had  been  steadily  and  increasingly  useful. 

The  Boston  Tabernacle  is  much  the  smallest,  though  one 
of  the  pleasantest,  of  the  series  of  great  buildings  erected  for 
the  Moody  and  Sankey  revival  meetings.      It  stands  on  Tre- 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  6r 

mont-street,  nearly  a  mile  west  of  the  Common,  out  toward 
the  new  part  of  Boston,  which  has  been  built  on  lands  re- 
claimed from  the  Back  Bay.  Its  seating  capacity  is  six  thou- 
sand, all  on  one  floor,  which  rises  as  it  recedes  from  the  plat- 
form, which  occupies  the  middle  of  one  long  side,  instead 
of  being  placed  at  the  end.  There  are  two  inquiry  rooms 
about  thirty  by  sixty  feet,  but  these  have  been  found  inade- 
quate, and  the  inquiry  meetings  have  been  removed  to  the 
Clarendon-street  Baptist  Church,  near  by. 

The  Executive  Committee  consists  of  Rev.  E.  B.  Webb, 
D.D.,  Chairman;  D.  E.  Snow,  Secretary;  Russell  Sturgis, 
Jun.;  Joseph  Story;  S.  G.  Deblois;  H.  M.  Moore;  John  O. 
Bishop  ;  Rev.  G.  F.  Pentecost,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Inquiry  Rooms;  Dr.  E.  Tourjee,  Chorister;  Franklin  W. 
Smith,  Chief  Usher. 

At  eight  o'clock,  on  Sunday  morning,  January  28th,  Mr. 
Moody  opened  the  Boston  revival  campaign,  as  usual,  with  an 
address  to  Christian  workers  ;  and  in  all  the  other  arrange- 
ments following  the  established  plan,  which  has  taken  its 
shape  from  long  experience  and  Christian  wisdom. 

Its  general  outline  is  as  follows  : — 

For  Sundays,  at  eight  or  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a 
series  of  addresses  to  Christian  workers,  continued  through- 
out the  entire  series  of  meetings.  No  services  to  conflict 
with  the  regular  morning  worship  at  the  churches.  Preach- 
ing in  the  afternoon,  after  the  close  of  the  Sunday-schools 
and  other  regular  afternoon  work  at  the  churches,  followed 
by  inquiry  meetings;  preaching  again  in  the  evening,  with 
inquiry  meetings  following,  at  which  trained  Christian  work- 
ers, with  Bible  in  hand,  give  personal  instruction  to,  and  offer 
prayer  with,  those  who  present  themselves  as  inquirers.  Be- 
sides these  there  are  the  Gospel  Temperance  Meetings  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Sawyer;  a  Woman's  Meeting  conducted 
by  Miss  Willard  ;  a  Boys'  Meeting  under  the  charge  of  Mr. 
Hastings;  and  sometimes  a  Young  Men's  Meeting  led  by 
some  experienced  member  of  the  Young  Men's  Christiar 
Association. 


62       Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

The  programme  for  every  week-day,  except  Saturday, 
comprises  the  Noon  Prayer-meetings,  which  on  Mondays 
or  Tuesdays  are  occupied  with  reports  of  revival  work  in  their 
Churches  by  the  pastors ;  followed  by  a  meeting  for  consulta- 
tion between  Mr.  Moody  and  the  ministers  of  the  city  and 
vicinity,  at  which  all  important  plans,  changes,  complaints, 
etc.,  are  discussed  and  settled. 

There  is  also  a  Woman's  Daily  Meeting  at  i  P.M.,  at  the 
Berkeley-street  Congregational  Church,  just  across  the  street 
from  the  Tabernacle,  at  which  Miss  Willard  conducts  devo- 
tional exercises,  and  gives  brief  expositions  of  Scripture,  fol- 
lowed by  three  hours  of  personal  conversation  with  lady  in- 
quirers. These  expositions  are  spoken  of  as  being  admirable 
in  style  and  full  of  spiritual  light  and  blessing  :  they  are  at- 
tended by  eminent  Christians  from  various  parts  of  New  En- 
gland, as  well  as  by  many  humble  and  sorrowful  ones  who 
come  to  their  gifted  and  loving  sister  for  consolation  in  sorrow 
and  direction  in  distress.  Finally,  there  are  the  week-evening 
services,  including  rehearsals  of  gospel  songs  for  half  an  hour 
by  the  great  chorus,  under  the  admirable  leadership  of  Prof. 
Tourjee  ;  solos  by  Mr.  Sankey ;  sermons  by  Mr.  Moody,  except 
on  Monday  evening,  when  some  city  minister  takes  his  place  ; 
the  rest  of  the  evening  being  occupied  in  the  same  manner 
as  on  the  Sabbath. 

Of  all  these  movements  Mr.  Moody  himself  is  the  general-in- 
chief,  and  the  settlement  of  questions  usually  signifies  a  refer- 
ence of  the  whole  matter  to  him,  with  full  power  to  execute 
his  will,  to  which  the  Executive  Committee,  clergy,  and  laity 
all  pledge  themselves  in  advance.  Thus  on  a  recent  occasion 
Mr.  Moody  raised  the  question  of  a  second  removal  of  the 
noonday  meetings  from  the  Tabernacle,  which  was  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  business  men,  to  Tremont  Temple  and  Park- 
street  Church,  for  men  and  women  separately,  as  no  one 
building  was  large  enough  for  both.  On  the  proposition  being 
made  to  hold  several  other  local  noon  meetings  a  leading 
pastor  said,  "If  Mr.  Moody  will  send  men  to  hold  these 
meetings,  so  that  the  people  may  know  they  come  from  him, 


Life  and  Labors  of  D.  L.  Moody.  6$ 

they  will  attend;  otherwise  the  meetings  will  be  a  failure" 
Then,  after  more  discussion,  it  was  as  usual,  unanimously 
agreed  to  "  leave  it  all  to  Mr.  Moody." 

It  is  too  early  yet  to  write  the  history,  or  even  to  estimate 
the  success,  of  the  Boston  revival ;  but  in  spite  of  bitter 
opposition  from  certain  sons  of  Belial,  and  the  cold  criticisms 
of  men  who  are  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  traditional 
"  Boston  theology,"  the  work  has  taken  deep  root  in  the 
hearts  of  Christians  throughout  New  England. 

This  is  manifest  in  the  admirable  reports  of  the  sermons  and 
services  in  the  leading  secular  as  well  as  religious  papers;  the 
co-operation  of  the  clergy  of  all  orthodox  orders  ;  the  large 
representation  of  the  New  England  Churches  at  the  Christian 
Convention,  held  March  13-16;  as  well  as  in  the  sensational 
and  even  impious  attacks  of  the  enemies  of  evangelical  truth, 
who  treat  the  revivalists  and  their  labors  as  objects  for  car- 
icature and  derision. 

Among  the  notable  features  of  the  Boston  Revival  are 
Mr.  Moody's  series  of  sermons  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
will  be  found  in  Part  III  of  this  volume. 

Among  those  clergymen  who  have  rendered  hearty  assist- 
ance to  the  evangelists  in  their  work  are  Rev.  Drs.  Webb, 
Manning,  Phillips  Brooks,  Withrow,  Dunn,  Mallalieu,  Pen- 
tecost,'Rev.  Messrs.  Meredith,  Speare,  Hamilton,  and  others, 
and  that,  too,  while  blest  with  revivals  in  their  own  churches* 
which  claim  their  constant  service. 

Mr.  Joseph  Cook,  whose  Monday  lectures  at  the  Tremont 
Temple  have  produced  such  a  profound  impression,  and 
pushed  the  battle  of  the  supernatural  basis  of  the  Christian 
faith  to  the  gates  of  its  rationalistic  enemies,  has  heartily  en- 
dorsed and  aided  Mr.  Moody.  These  two  men,  now  side  by 
side  in  Boston,  represent  the  two  extremes  of  evangelical 
religion  :  the  one  cultivated,  scholarly,  logical,  original,  pro- 
found; the  other,  untaught  except  in  the  word  of  God  and 
by  the  inspiration  of  the  divine  Spirit;  but  no  less  mighty 
through  faith  and  a  consuming  zeal  for  saving  souls. 

The  chief  topics  of  Mr.  Moody's  sermons  have  been  Grace  ; 


64        Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Love;  Enthusiasm;  Hinderances;  To  every  Man  his  Work  ; 
some  of  his  admirable  Bible  Portraits,  and  several  discourses 
on  Heaven. 

Already  the  work  of  grace  is  manifest  in  widely  different 
circles.  Dr.  Manning,  at  a  noon-day  meeting,  reported  the 
recent  conversion  of  persons  in  his  congregation  whose  ances- 
tors had  been  members  of  that  same  Church  for  two  hundred 
years;  and  at  the  same  time  another  pastor  related  the  con- 
version of  a  wretched  skeptical  blasphemer,  who  was  a  bar- 
tender in  a  drinking  saloon. 

A  city  missionary  mentioned  a  Gospel  Temperance  Meet- 
ing at  which  there  were  seventy-five  intemperate  men  and 
women  present  ;  and  in  a  canvass  of  the  beat  assigned  him 

among  some  of  the  poor  and  the  lost,  he  had  found  an  anxious 

soul  in  nearly  every  house. 

Rev.  Dr.  Dunn  reported  sixty  persons  received  into  his 

Church  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  seventy-one,  and  an 

equal  number  inquiring  the  way  of  life. 

"  The  freshet  is  beginning  to  float  the  drift-wood,"  said  one 

pastor.     "  I   believe,"  said   another,  at  the  same  tabernacle 

meeting,  "in  the  old-fashioned  Gospel  preached  here  in  its 

simplicity." 


PART    II. 
BIBLE    PORTRAITS. 


THE    PROPHET    DANIEL. 

T[L  WANT  to  talk  to  you  this  morning  about  the 
^  Prophet  Daniel.  His  name  signifies,  "God  with 
him;"  not  the  public  with  him,  not  his  fellow-men  with 
him, -but  God  with  him. 

In  the  third  year  of  King  Jehoiakim  Nebuchadnezzar 
came  up  against  Jerusalem,  and  took  ten  thousand  of 
its  chief  men  to  carry  them  captive  to  Babylon. 

I  am  glad  that  these  chief  men  who  stirred  up  the  war 
were  the  ones  who  fell  into  Nebuchadnezzar's  hands. 
Unlike  too  many  of  the  ringleaders  in  wars,  they  got  the 
punishment  on  their  own  heads. 

We  don't  know  how  old  Daniel  was  when  we  first  hear 
of  him,  probably  about  seventeen.  King  Nebuchadnez- 
zar had  given  orders  to  take  some  of  the  best  and  bright- 
est of  the  Hebrew  captives,  and  bring  them  up  among 
his  wise  men  ;  they  were  to  be  taught  in  the  learning  oi 
the  Chaldeans,  and  to  be  fed  with  meat  and  wine  from 
the  king's  table.  Among  these  young  men  were  Daniel 
and  his  three  friends,  who  had,  doubtless,  been  converted 
under  the  preaching  of  Jeremiah,  the  weeping  prophet. 


66       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

I  suppose  a  good  many  people  mocked  at  him  when  he 
lifted  up  his  voice  against  their  sins,  and  laughed  at  his 
tears,  and  said  of  him,  as  a  good  many  say  of  us,  that  he 
was  getting  up  a  false  excitement ;  but  these  four  young 
men  listened  to  his  preaching,  and  had  the  courage  to 
come  out  on  the  Lord's  side. 

And  right  here  is  the  secret  of  this  man's  success. 
The  Scripture  tells  us  that  this  man,  Daniel,  knew 
God.  There  are  a  great  many  professing  Christians 
who  never  get  on  intimate  terms  with  God,  and  so 
they  never  amount  to  much  ;  but  Daniel  knew  and 
trusted  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  even 
from  his  youth.  He  took  his  stand  with  God  right 
upon  his  entering  the  gate  of  Babylon.  He  cried  to  God 
to  keep  him  steadfast,  and  he  had  need  to  cry  hard. 
There  was  a  law  of  his  God  that  no  man  should  eat  meat 
offered  to  idols,  and  now  here  comes  a  commandment 
from  the  king  that  these  young  men  should  be  fed  upon 
meat  from  his  table,  which  Daniel  knew  had  been  sacri- 
ficed in  idol  worship : — "  But  Daniel  purposed  in  his 
heart  that  he  would  not  defile  himself  with  the  portion 
of  the  king's  meat,  nor  with  the  wine  which  he  drank." 
If  he  had  been  like  some  of  our  Chicago  Christians  he 
would  have  said,  "Well,  it  can't  be  helped.  I  don't  like 
to  defile  myself  this  way ;  the  law  of  God  forbids  it,  and 
if  I  were  only  home  in  Jerusalem  I  never  would  do  it  in 
the  world,  but  really  I  don't  see  how  I  am  going  to  help 
it.  We  are  nothing  but  slaves  in  Babylon,  and  if  the 
king  should  hear  of  our  disobedience  he  would  take  our 
heads  off  in  no  time — and  we  can't  be  expected  to  run 
such  a  risk  as  that." 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  f>7 

Then  I  suppose  some  of  our  modern  professors  of 
religion  would  have  advised  Daniel  after  this  fashion: 
"Young  man,  I  understand  you  are  thinking  about 
refusing  the  king's  meat  and  wine ;  don't  you  do  it. 
There  is  no  use  in  your  setting  aside  this  meat  and  wine, 
it  is  only  a  kind  of  Pharisaism  ;  the  moment  you  take 
this  stand,  you  say,  in  effect,  you  think  you  are  better 
than  other  people.  When  you  are  in  Rome,  do  as  the 
Romans  do.  When  you  arc  in  Jerusalem  you  must 
keep  the  commandments  ;  but  nobody  could  possibly 
think  of  your  keeping  them  down  here  in  Babylon." 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  but  the  devil  told  Daniel 
just  that  same  thing;  he  wanted  him  to  do  in  Babylon 
as  the  people  of  Babylon  did ;  but  Daniel  had  courage 
to  stand  up  to  the  law  of  his  God,  and  say  No  !  Con- 
sequences !  Never  mind  the  consequences  ;  there  wasn't 
any  such  word  in  his  dictionary.  When  it  came  to 
a  question  of  obeying  the  law  of  his  God,  he  was  go- 
ing to  obey,  and  let  God  take  care  of  the  consequences. 
Just  hear  what  is  said  in  this  eighth  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  this  book:  "Daniel  purposed  in  his  heart." 
Now,  the  trouble  with  a  great  many  people  is,  that  when 
they  purpose  to  do  right  they  only  purpose  in  their 
heads,  and  that  doesn't  amount  to  much  ;  if  you  are 
going  to  be  a  Christian,  you  must  purpose  to  serve  God 
away  down  in  your  hearts.  "With  the  heart  man  be- 
lieveth  unto  righteousness."  So  the  young  Israelite 
determined  that  he  would  not  eat  the  king's  meat,  nor 
drink  the  king's  wine,  because  it  was  against  the  law  of 
his  God:  but  he  got  the  eunuch  to  bring  him  and  his 
friends  pulse  and  water. 


63        Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Now  just  look  at  this  reason  which  Daniel  and  his 
friends  gave  to  the  king's  servant  ;  they  don't  try  to 
dodge  the  question  at  all,  they  say  right  out  at  once, 
"  We  cannot  do  this,  because  the  law  of  our  God  forbids 
it."  I  am  afraid  some  of  you,  if  you  had  been  in  their 
places,  would  have  tried  to  hide  behind  some  excuse  ; 
you  would  have  said,  you  wasn't  very  well,  or  that  meat 
and  wine  didn't  agree  with  you.  Not  so  with  Daniel :  he 
tells  that  heathen  why  he  can't  eat  the  king's  meat,  and 
drink  the  king's  wine,  and  I  have  no  doubt  the  man  re- 
spected him  for  it.  But  the  servant  said,  it  wouldn't  do 
at  all : — "  If  you  don't  eat,  the  king  will  find  it  out ;  he 
will  see  you  sometime  looking  lean  and  thin,  and  will 
ask  what  the  matter  is;  and  when  he  finds  out  that  I 
have  brought  you  something  else,  I  shall  lose  my  head, 
and  you  will  lose  yours." 

"Just  try  us  for  ten  days,"  said  Daniel.  "Give  us 
pulse  to  eat,  and  water  to  drink,  and  see  how  we  get 
along  on  it."  So  the  servant  tried  them  on  the  pulse 
and  water,  and  when  they  came  before  the  king  the 
eunuch's  fears  were  all  gone,  for  the  faces  of  Daniel 
and  his  friends  were  fairer  and  fatter  than  any  of  the 
others. 

Some  people  think  wine  makes'them  look  better,  and 
that  they  cannot  get  along  without  it.  Just  look  at 
their  red  noses  and  bloated  faces.  It  is  God's  truth,  and 
Daniel  tested  it,  that  cold  water,  with  a  clear  conscience, 
is  a  good  deal  more  healthy  than  wine.  Some  people 
say  they  cannot  get  along  without  stimulants ;  but  I  tel1 
you,  all  the  stimulant  a  person  needs  is  the  word  and  the 
grace  of  God. 


Bible  Portraits  — Daniel.  69 

There  was  a  soldier  down  in  Tennessee  when  I  was  in 
the  army,  a  great,  strong,  hearty  fellow,  who  was  a  tee- 
totaler. One  day,  when  the  army  was  on  a  long  march, 
somebody  offered  him  a  drink  of  whisky. 

"  I  am  a  teetotaler,"  was  his  reply. 

"  Never  mind  that,  you  are  in  the  army  now  ;  be- 
sides, you  need  some  stimulant  to  help  you  on  this  long 
march." 

The  man  took  out  a  pocket  Bible  and  held  it  up  before 
the  face  of  his  tempter,  and  said,  "  That  is  all  the  stimu- 
lant I  want." 

Just  so  with  Daniel ;  he  took  God's  side  in  this  ques- 
tion, and  held  to  God's  terms,  and  God  made  him  strong 
and  healthy,  and  gave  him  favor  with  those  who  saw 
his  honest}-;  and,  above  all,  gave  him  peace  in  his  own 
soul. 

The  next  thing  we  hear  of  him  the  king  has  had  a 
dream,  and  all  the  wise  men  are  called  to  interpret  it. 
And  now  I  seem  to  see  an  officer  coming  in.  laving  his 
hand  on  Daniel's  shoulder  and  arresting  him  in  the 
king's  name. 

"  What  is  the  matter?"  asks  Daniel. 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  says  the  officer,  "  but  the  king  had 
a  dream  last  night,  and  when  he  woke  up  he  could  not 
remember  it,  so  he  called  all  his  wise  men  together,  and 
asked  them  to  tell  him  his  dream,  and  then  to  interpret 
it  for  him  ;  and  when  no  one  of  them  could  do  it  the 
king  was  angry,  and  commanded  that  all  the  wise  men 
should  be  put  to  death.  You  belong  to  that  school,  so 
you  will  have  to  die  with  the  rest  of  them." 

"  It  seems  to  me  the  king  is  rather  hasty,"  says  Daniel. 


70        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

"  Just  let  him  give  us  a  little  time,  and  I  will  show  him 
his  dream,  and  the  interpretation  also." 

That  night  Daniel  and  his  three  friends  had  a  little 
prayer-meeting  together  ;  perhaps  they  read  the  story  of 
Joseph,  and  how  the  dreams  of  old  Pharaoh  were  revealed 
to  him,  and  how  he  came  to  be  a  great  man  in  Egypt 
afterward.  They  knew  that  all  secret  things  were  known 
to  God,  and  they  asked  him  to  reveal  this  one.  Then 
they  went  to  bed  and  slept  soundly. 

I  don't  think  many  of  you  would  have  gone  to  sleep 
with  such  danger  as  that  hanging  over  your  heads.  But 
Daniel  slept,  and  in  his  sleep  the  king's  dream  was  re- 
vealed to  him. 

Next  morning  there  was  a  great  stir  all  about  the  pal- 
ace. It  had  got  out  that  a  young  Hebrew  captive  was 
going  to  tell  the  king  his  dream,  and  save  the  lives  of  all 
the  wise  men  in  Babylon,  and  every  body  was  anxious  to 
know  about  it. 

.  I  can  see  the  young  man  brought  into  the  presence  of 
the  mighty  monarch.  He  stands  there  without  the  slight- 
est fear,  because  his  God  in  whom  he  trusts  has  made 
him  master  of  the  situation. 

There  must  have  been  joy  among  those  wise  men 
when  they  found  out  that  this  youth  was  able  to  tell  the 
king's  dream,  and  save  their  lives  for  them. 

The  king  looks  at  him,  and  says,  "  Young  man,  can  you 
tell  me  my  dream,  and  the  interpretation  of  it  ?" 

"  My  God  can  tell  it,"  answers  Daniel ;  and  then  he 
begins  :  "  O  king,  whilst  thou  didst  lie  with  thy  head  on 
thy  pillow  thou  didst  dream,  and  in  thy  dream  thou 
sawest  a  great  image — " 


Bible  Portraits — Daniel.  71 

"  That's  it !"  says  Nebuchadnezzar,  his  face  lighting 
all  at  once  ;  "  that's  it.     I  remember  it  now." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  says  Daniel,  "  my  God  revealed  it  to  me 
last  night  in  a  dream." 

You  sec,  my  friends,  he  doesn't  take  any  credit  to 
himself,  but  gives  all  the  glory  to  God. 

Then  Daniel  goes  on  with  the  dream.  "  The  head  of 
this  great  image  was  gold,  his  breast  and  his  arms  were 
silver,  his  belly  and  thighs  of  brass,  his  legs  of  iron,  and 
his  feet  were  part  of  iron  and  part  of  clay;  and  then, 
O  king,  thou  sawest  a  stone  cut  out  without  hands, 
which  struck  the  image  upon  its  feet  and  crushed  it 
to  pieces  until  it  became  like  the  dust  of  the  summer 
threshing-floor." 

"  That's  all  right,"  says  the  king.  "  Now  can  you  tell 
me  the  interpretation  of  it  ?  " 

I  imagine  some  of  you  would  have  tried  to  soften 
down  that  interpretation  a  little.  It  was  a  pretty  hard 
thing  for  Daniel  to  stand  up  there  before  that  great 
monarch  and  tell  him  that  his  kingdom  was  to  be  like 
the  dust  of  the  summer  threshing-floor.  I  suppose 
Babylon  was  the  biggest  city  that  ever  was  in  the  world. 
It  was  sixty  miles  around,  and  some  writers  tell  us  that 
the  walls  were  from  sixty-five  to  eighty-five  feet  high, 
and  twenty-five  feet  thick,  so  that  four  chariots  could 
be  driven  abreast  on  the  top  of  them.  But  in  spite  of 
all  this  greatness,  Daniel  tells  him  the  truth. 

"  Thou  art  this  head  of  gold  :  and  after  thee  shall  arise 
another  kingdom  inferior  to  thee  ;  and  another  third  king- 
dom, of  brass,  which  shall  bear  rule  over  all  the  earth  ■ 
and  the  fourth  kingdom  shall  be  strong  as  iron.     After 


72        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

ward  it  shall  be  divided,  and  become  part  strong  and  part 
■weak.  And  in  .the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God 
of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom  which  shall  never  be  de- 
stroyed :  it  shall  break  in  pieces,  and  destroy  all  these 
kingdoms,  and  it  shall  stand  for  ever." 

My  friends,  I  believe  in  the  literal  fulfillment  of  these 
God-given  words  of  Daniel,  and  in  the  sure  fulfillment 
of  the  prophecy  of  the  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
without  hands.  Daniel  himself  lived  to  see  the  first 
kingdom  overthrown,  when  the  Medes  and  Persians 
came  in  :  then  came  Alexander  and  the  Grecian  king- 
dom ;  and  then  came  Cesar  and  the  Romans  ;  and  by  and 
by  the  kingdom  of  God  shall  grind  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  into  dust,  and  bring  in  the  new  reign  of  peace. 
That  will  be  the  millennium,  when  Christ  shall  sway  his 
scepter  over  all  the  earth. 

The  king  was  greatly  pleased  with  Daniel,  and  made  a 
great  man  of  him  ;  and  for  his  sake  put  his  three  friends 
also  into  office.  You  see  when  Daniel  got  into  a  good 
place  he  didn't  forget  his  friends.  God  had  blessed  them 
signally  in  the  time  of  danger,  and  what  was,  perhaps,  a 
harder  thing,  he  gave  them  grace  in  the  time  of  pros- 
perity to  keep  them  true  to  him.  Their  faith  and  their 
fortunes  seemed  to  wax  strong  together. 

Not  long  afterward — may  be  it  was  the  dream  that 
put  it  into  his  head — Nebuchadnezzar  made  a  great 
image  of  gold,  and  set  it  up  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  near 
to  the  city.  It  was  about  ninety  feet  high,  and  about 
nine  feet  wide.  I  rather  think  the  king  intended  that 
image  to  represent  himself.  lie  was  going  to  have  a 
universal  religion,  and  he  was  going  to  be  head  of  it;  so 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  73 

he  gave  orders  to  all  the  nobility  and  the  officers  of  his 
kingdom  to  come  to  the  dedication  of  this  golden  image. 

I  don't  know  where  Daniel  was  at  this  time  ;  perhaps 
he  was  in  some  other  part  of  the  country  on  business.  I 
am  sure  he  was  not  at  the  dedication,  or  we  should  hue 
been  likely  to  hear  of  him.  However,  his  friends,  Sha- 
drach,  Meshach,  and  Abcd-nego,  were  there,  along  with 
the  rest  of  the  counselors  and  satraps,  high  secretaries 
and  princes  of  the  people.  Their  enemies  were  there, 
too,  watching  for  the  chance  to  get  them  out  of  the  way. 
A  faithful  servant  of  God  is  sure  to  have  enemies. 

It  was  a  great  day  when  the  image  was  unvailed.  I 
seem  to  see  it  flashing  in  the  sunlight,  the  vast  throng  of 
worshipers  standing  around  it,  and  the  king  at  the  head 
of  a  splendid  procession  of  his  lords  and  ladies  coming 
across  the  plain  with  banners  flying  and  music  playing. 
Really  it  must  have  been  a  trying  time  for  these  three 
men,  who  were  so  much  out  of  fashion  as  not  to  bow 
down  to  the  great  idol  when  every  body  else  was  do- 
ing it.  "  Then  a  herald  cried  aloud,  To  you  it  is  com- 
manded, O  people,  nations,  and  languages,  that  at  what 
time  ye  hear  the  sound  of  the  cornet,  flute,  harp,  sackbut, 
psaltery,  dulcimer,  and  all  kinds  of  music,  ye  fall  down 
and  worship  the  golden  image  that  Nebuchadnezzar  the 
king  hath  set  up :  and  whoso  falleth  not  down  and  wor- 
shipeth  shall  the  same  hour  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  a 
burning  fiery  furnace."  These  three  men  heard  the  com- 
mandment, but  there  was  another  commandment  which 
they  had  not  forgotten  :  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods 
before  me."     The  king  said.  How  down;  God  said,  Xo. 

It  didn't  take  them  a  minute  to  decide  which  to  obey. 
4 


74        Moody  :  ms  Words — Work— Workers. 

Now  I  suppose  some  people  would  have  said,  "  You 
might  just  bow  down  a  little;  you  needn't  worship,  you 
know,  just  bend  your  knee  a  little  ;  that  wont  do  any 
harm  ;  you  needn't  say  any  prayer  to  the  idol."  Not  a 
bit  of  it  ;  these  men  were  not  going  to  compromise  their 
consciences,  and  their  enemies  knew  it  very  well.  They 
utterly  refused  to  bend  the  knee  to  the  god  of  gold. 

Ah !  how  many  people  are  there  in  this  city  who  cry, 
Give  me  gold,  give  me  money,  and  I  will  do  any  thing. 
Perhaps  those  people  think  that  men  in  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's time  ought  not  to  have  bowed  down  to  the  golden 
idol,  but  they  themselves  are  worshiping  a  golden  idol 
every  day.     Money  is  their  god. 

Now  the  hour  has  arrived,  every  thing  is  ready ;  the 
king  makes  a  sign  with  his  hand,  and  the  cornets,  the 
sackbuts,  and  all  the  other  instruments  give  a  great  blast, 
and  the  whole  multitude  fall  down  on  their  faces  before 
the  great  image  which  Nebuchadnezzar  has  set  up. 

No,  not  all :  there  are  three  pairs  of  stiff  knees  in  that 
kingdom.  Their  enemies  had  taken  care  to  put  them 
into  the  front  rank,  where  they  could  watch  them,  and 
find  occasion  to  accuse  them  to  the  king.  I  seem  to  see 
those  fellows  looking  out  of  the  corners  of  their  eyes, 
when,  by  the  king's  commandment,  they  should  have 
been  worshiping  the  idol,  and  I  can  hear  them  saying  to 
themselves,  Aha !  we  have  caught  you  now.  Then  they 
go  straightway  and  tell  the  king.  "  O,  king,  live  forever  ! 
Do  you  know  that  there  arc  three  men  in  your  country 
who  will  not  bow  down  to  you  ?  " 

"  No,"  says  the  king,  "  who  are  they?" 

"  O,  they  are  some  of  those   Hebrew  captives ;  they 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  75 

don't  bow  down  with  the  rest  of  us,  and  we  thought  you 
Avould   like  to  know  it." 

"  Bring  them  to  me,"  says  the  king,  in  a  great  rage,  "  I 
will  see  whether  these  fellows  are  going  to  disobey  my 
orders  like  that."  It  is  quite  likely  he  would  have  or- 
dered their  heads  to  have  been  taken  off  at  once,  if  he 
had  not  remembered  that  they  were  particular  friends  of 
Daniel. 

And  now  they  stand  face  to  face  with  the  great  king. 
"What  is  this  I  hear  of  you?"  says  Nebuchadnezzar: 
"  it  is  said  you  disobey  my  orders,  and  don't  bow  down 
and  worship  my  golden  image.  Now  I'll  try  you  once 
more ;  then,  if  you  don't  bow  down,  into  the  furnace 
you  go." 

We  don't  know  who  the  speaker  was  on  that  occa- 
sion ;  perhaps  it  was  Shadrach.  He  stands  there  with 
his  two  friends,  looking  calmly  at  the  king,  and  thinking 
of  the  fiery  furnace  without  the  slightest  fear,  and  this  is 
what  he  says:  "We  are  not  careful  to  answer  thee  in 
this  matter,  O  king  ;  our  God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to 
deliver  us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  and  will  deliver 
us  out  of  thine  hand,  O  king.  But  whether  he  deliver  us 
or  not,  we  will  not  bow  down." 

"  Who  is  this  God  of  yours  that  is  able  to  deliver  you 
out  of  my  hand?"  says  the  king,  screaming  with  rage. 
"  Go  and  heat  that  furnace  seven  times  hotter  than  ever, 
and  thrust  these  fellows  into  it.  Be  quick.  I  will  not 
have  any  such  rebels  in  my  kingdom." 

So  some  of  the  king's  servants  hurry  away  to  the 
furnace  to  stir  up  the  fire;  others  seize  Shadrach,  Me- 
shach,  and  Abednego,  and  take  them  away:    and  when 


76        Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

the  furnace  doors  are  opened  the  fire  is  so  hot  that 
it  burns  the  king's  servants  to  death,  but  it  does  not 
harm  the  three  men  who  are  cast  headlong  into  it. 
Then  the  king  goes  and  looks  into  the  furnace,  and  what 
is  his  astonishment  as  he  sees  four  men  instead  of  three, 
walking  in  the  midst  of  the  fire,  as  safely  as  if  in  the 
midst  of  his  garden  !  "  Did  I  not  tell  you  to  cast 
in  three  men,  and  lo !  I  see  four  walking  about  in 
the  fire,  and  the  form  of  the  fourth  is  like  the  Son  of 
God!"  Yes,  Jesus  walked  there  with  them.  The 
Lord  himself  was  with  his  three  faithful  servants  ;  the 
great  Shepherd  looked  down  from  heaven,  and  saw 
those  three  sheep  of  his  flock  about  to  be  cast  into  the 
fire,  and  he  made  haste  and  came  down  himself  to  see 
that  they  suffered  no  harm.  Ah  !  Jesus  is  always  with 
his  people.  You  can  never  do  any  real  harm  to  a  man 
who  is  one  of  God's  obedient  children.  The  fire  only 
burned  off  the  devil's  bands,  but  didn't  singe  a  hair  of 
their  heads. 

Doesn't  Christ  say  that  the  hairs  of  our  heads  are  all 
numbered  ?  Now,  who  of  you  ever  heard  of  a  mother 
who  loved  her  little  child  well  enough  to  count  the  hairs 
on  its  curly  head  ?  But  the  Lord  loves  his  children  so 
well  that  he  counts  their  hairs — every  one.  My  friends, 
let  us  remember  that  it  is  safe  always  to  do  what  God 
wants  us  to  do.  If  our  way  to  heaven  lies  through  fire 
and  water,  it  is  all  the  same,  it  is  all  right ;  that  is  the 
proper  way  for  us  to  go. 

Then  the  king  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  furnace  and 
called  those  servants  of  the  most  high  God  to  come  forth. 
Nobody  could   take  them   out  of  such   a  fire,  but  they 


Bible  Portraits     I  77 

came  out  of  their  own  accord.  Then  Nebuchadnezzar 
spake  and  said,  "Blessed  be  the  God  of  Shadrach,  Me- 
shach,  and  Abed-nego,  who  hath  sent  his  angel,  and  de- 
livered his  servants  that  trusted  in  him,  and  have  changed 
the  king's  word,  and  yielded  their  bodies,  that  they  might 
not  serve  nor  worship  any  god,  except  their  own  God; 
therefore  I  make  a  decree,  That  every  people,  nation,  and 
language,  which  speak  any  thing  amiss  against  the  God 
of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  shall  be  cut  in 
pieces,  and  their  houses  shall  be  made  a  dunghill ;  be- 
cause there  is  no  other  god  that  can  deliver  after  this 
sort." 

And  then  we  find  the  king  promoting  these  men,  so 
that  instead  of  being  burned  to  death  for  their  obedience 
they  came  to  be  more  honorable  than  ever.  Ah,  my 
friends,  what  we  want  is  Christians  with  some  backbone, 
men  and  women  who  stand  up  for  the  right,  and  never 
mind  what  the  world  may  say.  If  we  only  had  a  few- 
such  Christians  in  Chicago  as  Shadrach.  Meshach,  and 
Abed-nego  I  believe  there  would  be  ten  thousand  con- 
versions in  the  next  twenty-four  hours. 

My  time  is  up.     Let  us  pray. 


;8        Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


THE     PROPHET    DANIEL— Continued. 

fHE  next  thing  we  hear  is,  that  the  king  has  had 
another  dream.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  great 
man  for  dreams.  This  time  he  saw  a  great  tree  which 
"  reached  unto  heaven,  and  the  sight  thereof  to  the  end 
of  all  the  earth  :  .  .  .  and,  behold,  a  watcher  and  a  holy 
one  came  down  from  heaven;  who  cried  aloud,  Hew 
down  the  tree,  and  cut  off  his  branches,  shake  off  his 
leaves,  and  scatter  his  fruit :  let  the  beasts  get  away  from 
under  it,  and  the  fowls  from  his  branches :  nevertheless, 
leave  the  stump  of  his  roots  in  the  earth.  .  .  .  Let  his 
heart  be  changed  from  man's,  and  let  a  beast's  heart  be 
given  unto  him  ;  and  let  seven  times  pass  over  him :  .  .  . 
to  the  intent  that  the  living  may  know  that  the  Most 
High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men,  and  giveth  it  to 
whomsoever  he  will." 

The  king  seems  to  have  been  as  much  puzzled  by  this 
dream  as  by  the  other,  and  nobody  could  tell  him  what 
it  meant  until  he  sent  for  Daniel.  Even  he  was  troubled 
about  it  at  first ;  but  presently  the  Lord  showed  it  to 
him,  and  then  he  preached  such  a  sermon  to  the  king 
about  his  pride,  and  the  necessity  of  repentance,  that 
the  king's  face  turned  pale,  and  his  knees  began  to  shake, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  he  lost  his  reason  and  wan- 
dered away  from  his  palace  out  into  the  woods  and  the 
deserts,  and  became  more  like  a  beast  than  a  man.  But 
at  last  the   Lord  had   mercy  on  him.      His   counselors 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  79 

and  princes  gathered  about  him  again  and  brought  him 
back  to  his  palace.  And  the  king's  heart  was  softened. 
I  think  he  became  truly  converted  to  God,  and  from  this 
time  we  don't  hear  him  saying  any  more,  "  Is  not  this 
great  Babylon  that  I  have  builded  ?"  But  we  hear  him 
blessing  the  Most  High,  and  praising  and  honoring  Him 
whose  dominion  is  everlasting,  and  whose  kingdom  is 
from  generation  to  generation. 

And  now  the  king  makes  one  more  proclamation,  dif- 
ferent from  all  the  others.  Up  to  this  time  he  has  been 
telling  other  people  what  to  do  ;  now  he  begins  to  speak 
of  his  own  duty,  and  he  says,  "  I,  Nebuchadnezzar,  will 
do  this,  and  do  that."  "  I  praise  and  extol  and  honor 
the  King  of  heaven,  all  of  whose  works  are  truth." 
He  has  found  out  his  own  duty.  His  heart  is  softened, 
and  although  we  do  not  hear  any  thing  more  of  him,  I 
have  no  doubt  that  Daniel  and  he  used  to  walk  the 
streets  of  Babylon  arm-in-arm,  and  talk  over  their  expe- 
riences together.  And  when  the  king  died  I  feel  quite 
sure  that  he  went  safely  to  heaven,  to  be  welcomed  by 
the  God  of  Daniel ;  and  through  the  long  eternity  King 
Nebuchadnezzar  will  rejoice  that  that  young  man,  Dan- 
iel, when  he  came  down  to  Babylon,  did  not  follow  the 
fashion  of  that  wicked  capital,  but  took  his  stand  for 
God,  though  it  might  have  cost  him  his  life. 

The  next  thing  we  hear  of  Babylon  is,  that  the  grand- 
son of  Nebuchadnezzar,  a  wild  young  prince,  called  Bel- 
shazzar,  has  come  to  the  throne.  On  a  certain  occasion 
he  makes  a  great  feast  to  a  thousand  of  his  lords.  They 
come  together  in  a  great  banquet-chamber,  and  they 
drink  and  carouse  all  night  long.     The}-  do  not  care  for 


So       Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

the  armies  of  Cyrus,  which  are  besieging  the  city.  They 
trust  in  its  high  walls  and  its  gates  of  brass,  and  feel 
themselves  perfectly  safe.  At  last,  when  the  head  of 
the  young  king  has  been  quite  turned  with  wine,  he  or- 
ders the  golden  vessels  which  his  grandfather  had  taken 
from  God's  temple  at  Jerusalem  to  be  brought  into  the 
banquet-hall  that  they  may  drink  from  them  in  honor  of 
the  gods  of  Babylon.  But  while  they  are  doing  this  im- 
pious thing,  behold,  the  fingers  of  a  man's  hand  appear 
writing  upon  the  wall  the  doom  of  the  king  of  Babylon. 

Drunk  as  he  is,  the  miserable  king  is  frightened. 

"  Bring  in  the  wise  men,"  says  he.  And  the  wise  men 
come  in  haste,  and  stare  at  the  writing,  but  not  one  of 
them  is  able  to  read  or  understand  it.  No  uncircum- 
cised  eye  can  read  God's  handwriting. 

Somehow  or  other  the  news  of  this  strange  affair 
reaches  the  ears  of  the  king's  mother,  and  she  sends  a 
servant  to  him,  telling  him  that  in  the  days  of  his  grand- 
father there  was  a  man  in  Babylon  who  could  interpret 
dreams  and  reveal  secrets,  and  do  all  manner  of  strange 
things,  and  that  maybe  he  would  be  able  to  read  the 
writing. 

It  seems  that  Daniel  had  been  lost  sight  of  for  the 
last  fifteen  years ;  but  now  there  is  special  work  for 
him  to  do,  and  so  they  find  him  out  and  bring  him  in 
and  ask  him  to  read  the  writing — "Mene,  Mcnc,  Tckel, 
Upharsin  :  "  and  the  meaning  of  it  was  clear  as  daylight 
to  him. 

Now  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  good  many  courtiers,  if 
they  had  seen  such  writing  as  that  upon  the  wall  of  the 
king's  palace,  would  have  softened  the  meaning  of  it  a 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  8i 

little,  and  not  have  given  it  in  its  full  strength,  for  fear 
of  offending  the  king.  But  that  is  not  Daniel's  fashion 
at  all.  He  reads  it  just  as  God  writes  it.  "Mene:  God 
hath  numbered  thy  kingdom,  and  finished  it.  Tekel: 
Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting. 
Peres  :  Thy  kingdom  is  divided,  and  given  to  the  Medes 
and  Persians." 

Ah,  poor  miserable  Belshazzar  !  Even  now  the  sol- 
diers of  Cyrus  have  turned  away  the  waters  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  are  coming  into  the  city  along  the  empty 
banks.  The  soldiers  are  battering  away  at  the  door  of 
your  palace,  and  before  morning  your  blood  shall  be 
spilled  upon  the  stones,  along  with  the  wine  which  you 
have  been  drinking  out  of  the  vessels  from  God's  holy 
temple  at  Jerusalem.  You  are  weighed  in  God's  balance, 
and  found  wanting. 

My  friends,  suppose  God  should  begin  to  weigh  some 
of  you  to-day  :  suppose  you  were  to  step  into  the  bal- 
ances now,  don't  you  think  you  would  be  found  wanting? 
Get  into  God's  scale,  take  along  with  you  your  educa- 
tion, and  your  wealth,  and  your  dignity,  and  your  fine 
clothes,  and  every  thing  you  have  that  is  splendid,  and 
let  the  Lord  put  the  ten  commandments  against  you, 
and  up  you  will  go  like  feathers — "  weighed  in  the  bal- 
ances, and  found  wanting."  Only  they  who  have  Christ 
in  their  souls  can  stand  the  test  of  God's  weighing.  Dare 
you  step  into  the  balances  to-day? 

Some  one  will  ask  me,  "  Mr.   Moody,  dare  you   step 

into   the  balances  to-day,   and   be   weighed  ?      Do  you 

know  that  you  would  be  saved  if  the  Lord  should  bring 

you  to  judgment?"     Yes,  thanks  be  to  God!  Christ  is 
4* 


82        Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

able  to  save  me,  even  me ;  and  he  will  save  all  of  you 
who  will  cast  away  your  sins,  and  take  Christ  instead. 

After  a  while  Darius,  the  Mede,  comes  to  the  throne 
of  Babylon.  He  must  have  met  Daniel  somewhere  in 
his  travels,  for  no  sooner  does  he  set  up  the  kingdom 
than  he  puts  him  into  a  place  of  great  power.  He 
chooses  a  hundred  and  twenty  princes,  whom  he  places 
over  the  kingdom,  and  over  these  princes  he  appoints 
three  presidents,  and  he  makes  Daniel  the  president 
of  the  presidents,  so  that  he  really  is  the  first  man  in 
the  kingdom  after  the  king.  His  business  is  to  "  see 
that  the  king  suffer  no  damage  ;"  that  is,  he  is  to  keep 
watch  of  the  accounts,  to  see  that  nobody  cheat  the 
king.  This  must  have  been  a  very  difficult  place,  and 
Daniel  must  have  had  his  hands  full.  He  had  to  watch 
those  hundred  and  twenty  rascals  who  were  all  the  while 
trying  to  steal  something  off  the  revenue,  and  to  go  over 
their  accounts  again  and  again,  so  as  to  be  certain  that 
they  were  correct  to  a  penny. 

It  was  not  long  before  Daniel  became  very  unpopular 
with  the  princes.  I  seem  to  hear  them  talking  among 
themselves  in  this  way : — 

"  There  is  that  miserable  old  Jew,  Daniel ;  if  we  only 
had  him  out  of  the  way  we  could  make  no  end  of 
money.  We  would  very  speedily  be  rich ;  we  could 
have  our  country  houses  and  our  city  houses,  and  our 
fine  horses  and  chariots,  and  live  in  the  very  highest  style 
off  the  revenue  of  this  kingdom  ;  but  that  old  fellow 
watches  us  as  narrowly  as  a  cat  watches  a  mouse.  We 
can't  cheat  him,  even  in  a  shilling." 

"  Why,"  says  another,  "  I  never  saw  such  a  man  in  all 


Bible  Pori  raits-  -Daniel.  S3 

my  life.  I  gave  in  an  account  the  other  day  that  was 
only  a  few  dollars  short ;  and  didn't  he  send  it  back  to 
me,  and  make  me  pay  the  difference?  I  wish  he  were 
back   in  Jerusalem,  where  he  came  from." 

However,  the  king  trusted  Daniel ;  and  he  was  such 
a  thoroughly  good  and  honest  man  that  they  could 
find  no  way  to  revenge  themselves  upon  him.  They 
talked  it  over  together  again  and  again,  and  all  agreed 
that  there  was  no  chance  of  getting  him  out  of  the  way 
unless  they  could  find  something  in  his  religion  by  which 
they  could  bring  him  into  trouble. 

"  We  shall  not  find  any  occasion  against  this  Daniel, 
except  we  find  it  against  him  concerning  the  law  of  his 
God."  What  an  honor!  Nothing  wrong  with  him,  even 
in  the  eyes  of  these  bad  men,  except  that  he  was  too 
faithful  to  his  God  ! 

How  many  of  you  are  likely  to  be  complained  of  on 
that  account? 

Finally,  the)-  hit  upon  a  plan  which  they  thought 
might  possibly  succeed.  One  night  when  they  were 
closeted  together  in  secret  one  of  the  princes  said  to  the 
rest,  "  I  think  I  have  got  a  plan  that  will  work.  You 
know  King  Darius  is  very  popular,  and  he  is  very  proud 
of  it.  The  people  praise  him  a  great  deal,  and  he  likes 
it.  Now  suppose  we  ask  him  to  establish  a  royal  decree, 
that  whosoever  shall  ask  a  petition  of  any  god  or  man 
for  thirty  days,  save  of  the  king,  he  shall  be  cast  into  the 
den  of  lions.  That  will  be  putting  the  king  in  the  place 
of  the  gods,  and  he  is  more  likely  to  be  flattered  by  that 
than  by  any  thing  I  can  think  of.  Then,  if  once  we  can 
get  that  old   Hebrew  into  the  lion's  den.  we  shall  make 


84        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

a  good  deal  more  money  than  we  have  been  able  to  do 
with  him  watching  us  all  the  time." 

This  notion  seemed  to  please  the  princes  very  well. 
They  drew  up  the  document  immediately.  It  would  not 
do  to  let  Daniel  hear  of  it  before  the  king  should  sign  it, 
and  so  they  appointed  a  committee  to  take  the  decree 
down  to  the  palace  the  very  first  thing  in  the  morning. 
There  were  some  lawyers  among  these  hundred  and 
twenty  princes ;  and  I  seem  to  see  them  drawing  up  the 
proclamation  with  great  care  according  to  law,  making 
it  firm  and  binding,  laughing  to  themselves,  and  saying: 
"The  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  change  not.  If 
once  we  can  get  Darius  to  stamp  this  document  with  his 
signet-ring,  Daniel  is  done  for,  sure  enough." 

So  the  committee  go  down  to  the  palace  next  morning 
to  obtain  the  king's  signature.  They  begin  by  flattering 
him.  If  a  man  wants  another  to  do  a  mean  thing  he 
always  begins  by  appealing  to  his  vanity. 

"  O  king,  we  have  been  thinking  how  popular  you  are 
in  your  kingdom,  and  what  you  might  do  to  make  your- 
self even  more  famous  than  you  are  ;  and  we  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that,  if  you  would  publish  a  decree 
that  nobody  in  the  kingdom,  for  thirty  days,  should  pray 
to  any  other  god  except  yourself,  it  would  turn  the 
hearts  of  all  the  people  toward  you  even  more  than  now. 
We  should  then  have  a  universal  religion,  and  the  king- 
would  be  at  the  head  of  it. 

Darius  felt  flattered  by  this  proposition.  He  turned 
it  over  in  his  mind,  and  presently  said  : — 

"  That  seems  sensible." 

"All  right,"  said  the  princes.    "  We  thought  you  would 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  $s 

like  it ;  ;md  in  order  that  there  might  not  be  any  delay, 
we  have  the  document  here  already  drawn  up.  Now  if 
you  will  please  to  stamp  this  with  your  signet-ring,  we 
shall  have  it  published  right  away." 

The  king  takes  the  document,  reads  it  over,  stamps  his 
seal  upon  it ;  and  the  committee  go  away  laughing,  and 
saying,  "  Ha,  ha  !  old  Hebrew,  we  will  have  you  in  the 
den  of  lions  before  night." 

The  princes  lost  no  time  in  publishing  the  new  decree 
of  the  king.  I  can  imagine  some  one  of  Daniel's  friends, 
who  had  seen  the  document,  going  up  to  his  office  in 
great  haste  to  give  him  warning  that  there  was  some 
trouble  brewing. 

"  Have  you  heard  the  news,  Daniel?  Those  hundred 
and  twenty  princes  have  gone  and  got  Darius  to  publish 
a  decree  that  nobody  shall  pray  to  any  other  god  except 
to  the  king  for  thirty  days.  That  is  a  conspiracy  against 
you.  Now  I  want  to  give  you  a  little  advice  ;  and  that 
is,  to  get  out  of  this  town  in  a  hurry." 

But  Daniel  says  he  can't  leave  his  business.  He  is 
afraid  these  hundred  and  twenty  princes  will  cheat  the 
revenues  while  he  is  away.  His  duty  is  right  there,  and 
he  is  determined  to  stay  there  and  attend  to  it. 

"Well,  then,  hadn't  you  better  pray  more  secretly? 
You  have  a  habit,  that  is  all  well  enough  in  ordinary 
times,  of  going  up  to  your  chamber,  where  the  windows 
open  toward  Jerusalem,  and  saying  your  prayers  there 
three  times  a  day.  And  sometimes  you  pray  pretty  loud, 
and  people  out  of  doors  can  hear  you.  Now,  for  the 
next  thirty  days,  just  shut  your  windows  while  you  pray  ; 
for  these  princes  arc  sure  to  have  some  spies  watching 


86         Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

you  at  your  prayers.  You  had  better  stop  up  the  key- 
hole of  your  door,  also,  for  these  mean  fellows  are  not 
above  peeping  in  to  watch  you.  It  would  be  still  better, 
Daniel,  if  you  wouldn't  kneel  down  at  all,  but  say  your 
prayers  after  you  get  into  bed." 

Ah  !  how  many  young  men  have  gone  to  college,  or 
to  some  strange  place  of  business,  and  lost  their  peace 
of  mind  and  their  hope  in  Christ,  because  they  were  afraid 
to  pray  before  their  room-mates  ! 

And  what  does  Daniel  say  to  such  advice  as  this?  He 
scouts  it ;  he  tramples  it  under  his  feet.  No  man  shall 
hinder  him  from  praying.  No  king  shall  frighten  him 
out  of  his  duty.  He  attends  to  his  morning's  work; 
looks  over  the  accounts  as  usual ;  and  when  twelve  o'clock- 
comes  he  goes  to  his  chamber,  puts  the  windows  wide 
open,  kneels  down  and  prays,  not  to  Darius,  but  to  the 
God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.  His  windows  are 
opened  toward  Jerusalem,  and  his  face  is  turned  that 
way;  for  Jerusalem  is  dearer  to  him  than  his  life,  and 
the  God  of  his  fathers  is  his  sure  defense.  I  can  seem 
to  see  him  kneeling  there — that  old  man  with  his  white 
locks  and  beard,  praying  at  the  probable  cost  of  his  life  ; 
but  he  does  not  seem  to  be  troubled  by  the  danger, 
neither  is  he  angry  at  the  command  of  the  king  or  the 
manifest  wickedness  of  those  hundred  and  twenty  princes. 
He  prays  for  the  king,  his  friend,  who,  he  is  sure,  has 
done  this  wickedness  in  some  thoughtless  moment.  He 
also  prays  for  his  enemies,  the  princes,  who  are  wickedly 
seeking  to  destroy  him. 

Those  men  have  taken  care  that  two  witnesses  shall 
be  underneath   Daniel's  windows  at  the   time  when  he 


Bible  Portraits— Daniel.  87 

usually  goes  to  pray.  "  Hark!"  says  one  to  the  other, 
"  did  you  hear  that  ?  The  old  man  is  up  there  pray- 
ing, sure  enough  !  Listen  :  he  is  not  praying  to  King 
Darius." 

"  No,"  says  the  other ;  "  he  is  praying  to  the  God  of 
the  Hebrews." 

So  they  listen  till  the  prayer  is  finished,  and  then  they 
hurry  away  to  the  princes  to  give  their  evidence  against 
Daniel ;  and  the  princes  lose  no  time  in  laying  the  mat- 
ter before  the  king. 

"O  King  Darius!  live  forever.  Is  it  not  written  that 
the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  change  not  ?  " 

"  It  is,"  said  Darius.  "  Any  thing  that  is  stamped  with 
the  king's  seal  cannot  be  changed." 

"  That  is  what  we  thought,"  said  the  princes.  "  Did 
you  not  make  a  decree  that,  for  the  next  thirty  days,  no 
man  should  pray  to  any  other  god  but  the  king?  " 

"Yes  I  did,"  said  Darius. 

Then  they  tell  him  that  the  chief  of  the  presidents— 
this  Daniel,  the  Hebrew — has  refused  to  obey  the  king's 
command. 

Poor  Darius  !  "  What  a  mistake  I  have  made  !  "  says 
he.  "  I  might  have  known  that  Daniel  would  never  obey 
such  a  command  as  that.  I  had  quite  forgotten  about 
him  when  I  made  it." 

There  is  not  a  man  in  all  Babylon  who  is  so  troubled 
as  the  king.  The  account  says  that  "  he  labored  till 
the  going  down  of  the  sun  to  deliver  Daniel."  But  the 
command  had  gone  forth,  the  law  had  been  made,  and 
it  could  not  be  changed,  even  for  the  sake  of  Daniel 
himself. 


8S        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

If  Darius  had  loved  his  friend  as  Christ  loves  us,  he 
would  have  gone  down  into  the  den  of  lions  for  him. 
Our  Darius,  our  King,  counted  not  his  life  dear  unto 
himself,  but  freely  gave  it  up  for  us. 

At  sufidown  the  king's  officers  take  the  old  man  away 
to  the  lions.  They  bind  his  hands  behind  him,  and  lead 
him  along  the  streets  of  Babylon  toward  the  den.  The 
whole  city  goes  out  to  see  the  sad  procession.  The 
princes  rub  their  hands,  and  laugh  over  the  success  of 
their  wicked  plot ;  the  people  look  on  in  wonder,  to  see 
such  a  sweet-faced  old  man  led  away  to  die  like  a  crimi- 
nal ;  while  poor  Darius  walks  the  chamber  of  his  palace, 
wringing  his  hands  in  agony,  saying,  "Ah  me!  I  have 
destroyed  my  friend." 

But  Daniel  walks  with  a  firm  step.  His  old  knees 
don't  shake  a  bit.  The  wind  of  the  evening  plays  with 
his  white  locks,  and  with  a  smile  upon  his  face  he  goes 
to  face  the  lions.  He  has  served  his  God  for  seventy 
years,  and  he  feels  sure  that  God  will  not  desert  him 
now.  I  can  imagine  him  saying,  "  My  God  can  bring 
me  out  of  the  jaws  of  the  lions  just  as  easily  as  he  saved 
my  three  friends  from  the  furnace  of  fire.  But  even  if 
they  cat  me,  I  shall  only  die  for  my  God." 

And  when  they  put  him  into  the  den  God  sent  one 
of  his  angels  to  shut  the  mouths  of  the  lions.  At  the 
hour  of  the  evening  prayer  Daniel  kneels  in  the  den  ; 
and,  if  he  can  get  the  points  of  the  compass  down  there, 
he  prays  with  his  face  toward  Jerusalem  ;  then,  taking 
one  of  the  lions  for  his  pillow,  he  lies  down  and  sleeps 
as  sweetly  as  any  man  in  Babylon. 

The  king  sits  up  all  night,  thinking  what  his  folly  has 


•     Biblk  Portraits— Daniel.  89 

cost  him — even  the  life  of  his  most  faithful  servant.  But 
he  remembers  that  the  God  of  Daniel  has  done  strange- 
things  for  those  who  trusted  him.  lie  has  heard  of 
Shadrach  and  his  friends  coming  out  of  the  fiery  furnace  ; 
and  he  knows  that  Daniel  went  into  the  den  feeling  that 
his  God  would  go  with  him  and  save  him.  At  the  first 
dawn  of  day  he  orders  out  his  chariot,  and  you  can  hear 
the  wheels  rattling  over  the  pavements  of  Babylon  before 
the  people  are  up.  Away  he  goes,  with  his  horses  on 
the  run,  to  the  door  of  the  lions'  den  ;  springs  out  of  the 
chariot ;  looks  down  into  the  den,  and,  with  a  voice  trem- 
bling with  anxiety,  cries  out,  "  O  Daniel,  servant  of  the 
living  God,  is  thy  God,  whom  thou  servest  continually, 
able  to  deliver  thee  from  the  lions?" 

I  lark  !  There  comes  up  a  voice  out  of  the  den.  It  is 
the  voice  of  Daniel,  to  whom  this  morning  is  like  the 
morning  of  the  resurrection.  He  has  been  down  to  the 
gates  of  death,  and  yet  he  is  alive. 

"  O  king,  live  forever !  My  God  hath  sent  his  angel 
and  hath  shut  the  lions'  mouths,  that  they  have  not  hurt 


me. 


How  glad  King  Darius  is  to  hear  the  voice  of  his  friend 
once  more!  He  has  him  brought  up  out  of  the  den, 
takes  him  up  in  his  arms,  and  into  his  chariot,  and  away 
they  go,  home  to  the  palace  to  breakfast  together,  and 
to  talk  over  this  wonderful  deliverance. 

Then  King  Darius  publishes  another  decree.  The  ex- 
perience of  Daniel  has  thoroughly  converted  him  ;  and 
now  he  ordains,  that  in  every  dominion  of  his  king- 
dom "men  tremble  and  fear  before  the  God  of  Daniel; 
for  he  is  the  living  God,"  who  "  worketh  signs  and  won- 


90        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

ders  in  heaven  and  in  earth,"  and  "  who  hath  delivered 
Daniel  from  the  power  of  the  lions." 

Three  times  a  messenger  came  from  God  to  say  to 
Daniel  that  he  was  greatly  beloved.  I  love  to  think  of 
those  precious  words  in  the  32d  verse  of  the  nth  chap- 
ter of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  "  But  the  people  that  do  know 
their  God  shall  be  strong,  and  do  exploits."  There  is 
another  verse  like  it  which  says,  "They  that  be  wise, 
shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament ;  and  they 
that  turn  many  to  righteousness,  as  the  stars  for  ever  and 
ever." 

What  has  become  of  all  the  great  ones  who  lived  in 
the  time  of  Daniel?  What  has  become  of  the  princes 
and  the  philosophers,  falsely  so  called  ?  Look,  ye  men 
of  science,  who  go  down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and 
dig  up  some  dead  carcass,  and  try  to  make  it  talk  against 
the  word  of  God  ;  you  shall  all  go  down  to  death,  and 
your  names  shall  rot ;  but  the  man  of  God  shall  shine  for- 
ever. This  Daniel  has  been  dead  for  twenty-five  hundred 
years,  but  still  increasing  millions  read  and  admire  his 
life. 

May  the  God  of  Daniel  be  with  us,  the  courage  of 
Daniel  be  in  us ;  may  we  have  grace  to  confess  the  Lord, 
to  go  through  the  fire,  or  among  the  lions,  if  need  be, 
for  the  sake  of  his  truth  ;  and  when  the  Saviour  comes,  in 
the  day  that  he  makes  up  his  jewels,  may  the  Lord  give 
each  of  us  a  place  with  Daniel  and  the  shining  ones. 


Bible  Portraits— Naaman.  91 


MAJOR-GENERAL     NAAMAN. 

3UR  subject  to-night  is  Naaman.  We  are  told 
^>$£  that  he  was  a  great  man — but  he  was  a  leper. 
He  was  a  great  general — but  he  was  a  leper.  He  had 
been  very  successful  in  war,  and  his  king  had  greatly 
honored  him — but  he  was  a  leper.  Day  and  night  this 
terrible  fact  tortured  him,  and  I  suppose  he  thought  he 
had  got  to  go  down  to  his  grave  with  that  loathsome 
disease  upon  him. 

But  among  the  Hebrew  captives  was  a  little  girl  who 
waited  on  Mrs.  Naaman,  and  who,  I  doubt  not,  had  been 
brought  up  by  her  praying  mother  to  trust  in  the  God 
of  Israel.  She  was  not  ashamed  to  confess  her  faith,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  but  she  was  a  good  and  truthful  girl, 
or  else  no  one  would  have  believed  her  strange  words. 

One  day  she  said  to  her  mistress,  "  Would  God  my 
lord  were  with  the  prophet  that  is  in  Samaria  !  for  he 
would  recover  him  of  his  leprosy." 

Her  mistress  looked  at  her  with  amazement.  "  What ! 
Wh;it  is  that  you  say?  Cure  my  husband  of  his  lep- 
rosy?    Did  you  ever  hear  of  his  curing  a  leper?" 

"  No,"  says  the  little  girl,  "  I  didn't;  but  I  have  heard 
of  his  doing  greater  things  than  that  would  be."  And 
then,  perhaps,  she  told  how  the  prophet  had  taken  the 
mantle  of  Elijah  and  smote  the  River  Jordan  with  it.  and 
it  opened  and  let  him  through  dry-shod  ;  and  how  he  had 
saved  the  two  sons  of  that  widow  from  beimr  sold  into 


92        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

slavery  by  means  of  that  little  bit  of  oil;  and  how  he 
had  raised  to  life  the  dead  son  of  another  woman. 
Naaman  hears  it  and  believes  the  little  girl,  so  he  goes 
to  the  king  about  it. 

"I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do,"  says  the  king;  "I'll  write 
you  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  king  of  Israel,  and 
you  go  down  and  try  it."  So  he  gives  him  a  letter  to 
the  king,  thinking,  if  the  thing  is  possible  the  king  will 
know  all  about  it,  of  course  ;  and  off  the  man  goes,  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  to  see  the  king  of  Israel. 
He  took  along  a  pretty  good  doctor's  bill,  too  ;  I  don't 
just  know  how  to  figure  it,  but  it  was  over  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  and  with  the  letter  to  the  king,  no 
doubt  he  thought  every  thing  was  all  right. 

I  can  see  him  and  his  escorf  sweeping  out  of  the  gates 
of  Damascus,  and  coming  up,  in  due  time,  to  the  palace 
of  the  king  of  Israel  in  grand  style.  He  sends  in  the 
letter,  and  when  the  king  reads  it  he  turns  round  and 
says,  "  What  does  this  mean  ?  Am  I  God,  to  kill  and  to 
make  alive?  Here  is  the  king  of  Syria  sending  me  a 
letter  saying,  '  Now,  when  this  letter  is  come  unto  thee, 
behold,  I  have  therewith  sent  Naaman  my  servant  to 
thee  that  thou  mayest  recover  him  of  his  leprosy.'  This 
means  war ;  the  king  of  Syria  is  trying  to  get  up  a  quar- 
rel with  me  ;"  and  the  king  of  Israel  rent  his  mantle 
from  top  to  bottom. 

It  is  not  long  before  the  news  of  it  goes  through  the 
whole  city,  and  at  last  it  comes  to  the  ears  of  Elisha 
that  the  king  has  rent  his  clothes  on  account  of  a  let- 
ter which  a  Syrian  general  has  brought  him,  asking  him 
to  cure  his  leprosy.     So  he  sends  word  to  the  king,  say- 


Bible  Portraits — Naaman.  93 

ing,  "Wherefore  hast  thou  rent  thy  clothes?  Let  him 
come  now  to  me.  and  he  shall  know  that  there  is  a 
prophet  in  Israel."  So  the  man  goes  down  to  the  house 
of  the  prophet,  a  very  plain  house  it  might  have  been, 
and  sends  in  word  that  Major-General  Naaman,  of  Syria, 
is  outside.  •  No  doubt  he  thought  the  prophet  would 
feel  very  much  honored  by  the  presence  of  such  a  great 
man,  but  the  prophet  doesn't  even  go  out  to  see  him. 
He  merely  sends  out  his  servant  to  say  to  him,  "  Go  and 
wash  in  Jordan  seven  times,  and  thy  flesh  shall  come 
a^ain  to  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  clean." 

And  now  Naaman  is  as  mad  as  he  can  be. 

"The  idea!  Go  and  wash  in  Jordan!  That  ditch! 
We  wouldn't  call  it  a  river  at  all  in  Damascus.  Does  he 
mean  to  insult  me?  Does  he  mean  to  insinuate  that  I 
don't  keep  my  body  clean?     I  thought — " 

Ah,  that  is  just  the  trouble.  He  had  marked  out  a 
way  of  his  own  for  the  prophet  to  heal  him,  and  was 
mad  because  he  didn't  follow  his  plan.  That  is  just  the 
trouble  with  a  great  many  people  who  come  to  God  to 
be  saved.  They  think  God  ought  to  come  in  this  way, 
and  he  comes  in  that  way.  No  matter  what  way  you 
have  marked  out  for  God,  he  will  take  some  other  way. 
You  will  never  get  into  God's  kingdom  till  you  are  ready 
to  come  in  God's  way. 

"  I  thought.  He  will  surely  come  out  to  me,  and  stand, 
and  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  his  God,  and  strike  his 
hand  over  the  place,  and  recover  the  leper." 

"  He  might  have  said,  I  thought  he  would  come 
out,  and  bow,  and  scrape,  and  be  very  much  honored 
at   receiving   a  call  from    the  distinguished   Major-Gen- 


94        M<  iody  :  ins  Words— Work— Workers. 

eral  Naaman,  and  instead  of  that  he  pays  me  no  atten- 
tion at  all !  " 

That  is  just  the  way  with  some  seekers  of  religion  ; 
they  don't  want  to  be  converted  in  this  way,  but  in  that 
way ;  sometimes  they  won't  be  converted  in  such  revival 
meetings  as  these,  but  must  be  converted  at  some  regular 
church.  Sometimes  they  say:  "  I  won't  be  converted 
at  a  Methodist  church,  if  I  ain't  converted  at  all."  Or, 
"  I  won't  be  converted  in  a  Baptist  church,  anyhow." 
But  the  very  way  they  won't  go  is  the  way  they  must 
go,  for  God  sees  it  is  necessary  to  break  their  stubborn 
wills  and  mortify  their  pride. 

Naaman's  pride  has  got  a  terrible  blow  right  over  the 
head,  and  how  terribly  mad  he  is  !  But  his  servants  are 
pretty  shrewd  fellows,  so  they  let  him  cool  off  a  little, 
and  then  they  begin  to  talk  to  him. 

I  tell  you  I  had  a  thousand  times  rather  a  man  should 
get  mad  under  a  sermon  than  go  to  sleep  under  it.  If 
he  gets  mad  and  goes  out  he  will  come  back  again  when 
-he  gets  over  it ;  but  if  he  is  asleep  it  is  all  lost  time  try- 
ing to  save  him. 

"  Now,"  said  the  servants,  "  if  he  had  told  you  to  do 
some  great  thing  wouldn't  you  have  done  it  ?  Suppose 
he  had  told  you  to  take  codlivcr  oil  three  times  a  day 
for  ten  years,  wouldn't  you  have  done  it  ?  If  he  had 
prescribed  some  awful  bitter  drug  wouldn't  you  have 
swallowed  it?  If  he  had  told  you  to  go  and  bring  him 
twice  as  much  money  wouldn't  you  have  thought  the 
cure  cheap  enough  at  that  price  ?  And  now,  when  he 
says,  Go  wash  in  the  Jordan  seven  times,  hadn't  you  bet- 
ter do  it  ?  " 


Bible  Portraits — Naaman.  95 

There  is  one  thing  in  Naaman's  favor,  he  took  the 
message,  though  he  didn't  like  the  messenger.  Down 
to  Jordan  he  goes,  and  dips  himself  once  in  the  water, 
saying  to  himself,  "They  will  laugh  at  me  terribly  when 
I  get  back  if  I  don't  get  cured  of  my  leprosy,  so  I  may 
as  well  try  it."  But  when  he  comes  up  and  looks  to  see 
if  his  leprosy  is  one-seventh  gone,  and  finds  no  change  at 
all,  he  begins  to  be  discouraged.  But  he  is  in  the  way 
of  obedience.  God's  prophet  has  told  him  to  dip  seven 
times,  and  he  is  going  to  do  it. 

"  Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice."  If  ever 
you  get  out  of  the  pit  of  Adam  you  must  get  out  just 
where  he  got  in.  He  got  in  by  disobeying  God,  and  the 
way  out  again  is  b*y  obedience.  Down  he  goes  the  sec- 
ond time. 

Now,  if  there  had  been  some  of  these  Chicago  Chris- 
tians there  they  would  have  said,  "  Well,  Naaman,  how 
do  you  feel  now?"  but  he  didn't  feel  any  better.  Down 
he  goes  the  third  time,  and  again,  and  again  ;  still  no 
change.  The  sixth  time  he  comes  out  and  shakes  him- 
self, and  rubs  the  water  off  him,  and  looks  at  his  flesh. 
Still  no  improvement !  Once  more ;  and  now,  as  he 
comes  up,  he  feels  a  thrill  of  health  ;  as  quick  as  he  can 
get  the  water  out  of  his  eyes  he  sees  that  he  is  cured  ! 
his  leprosy  has  floated  away  in  the  waters  of  Jordan — 
the  waters  of  death  and  judgment — and  now  he  comes 
out  in  a  new  body — a  resurrected  body! 

He  lost  his  temper;  then  he  lost  his  pride;  then  he 
lost  his  leprosy;  that  is  generally  the  order  in  which 
proud,  rebellious  sinners  are  converted. 

And  now  how  happy  he  is.     Hear  him  shout,  "  This  is 


96        Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

the  happiest  day  of  my  life.  I  am  cleansed  ;  I  am 
cleansed  ;  I  am  a  leper  no  more  !" 

Away  he  goes  to  the  prophet's  house  and  offers  him 
the  gifts  he  has  brought,  but  the  prophet  won't  have 
any  thing  at  all. 

It  would  have  spoiled  this  beautiful  story  if  he  had 
taken  any  thing  for  his  work.  "  The  gift  of  God  is  eter- 
nal life."  You  cannot  buy  any  thing  of  God.  So  far  as 
God  and  his  prophet  are  concerned  Naaman  takes  back 
to  Syria  with  him  every  thing  he  brought — except  his 
leprosy. 

And  that  is  the  way  with  you,  sinner.  When  you  come 
to  Christ  you  haven't  any  thing  that  Christ  wants  to  take 
from  you  except  it  be  your  sins.  Naaman  might  have 
taken  his  leprosy  back  with  him  if  he  hadn't  obeyed  the 
prophet  and  dipped  seven  times  in  Jordan,  and  you  will 
take  your  sins  down  to  death  with  you  unless  you  submit 
your  will  to  Christ.  The  battle  has  to  be  fought  out  on 
the  line  of  your  will.  Who  will  obey  Him  to-night? 
Who  will  trust  Him  to-night?  May  God  open  your  eyes 
and  show  you  how  to  be  saved ! 


Bible  Portraits — Mephibosheth.  97 


MEPHIBOSHETH. 

fHERE  is  a  story  in  the  books  of  Samuel,  away  back 
as  far  as  the  time  of  the  kings  of  Israel,  which  will 
help  us  to  understand  the  Gospel.  It  is  about  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Mephibosheth. 

You  know  what  a  hard  time  David  had  when  Saul 
was  hunting  him,  and  trying  every  way  to  kill  him,  and 
you  remember  it  had  been  revealed  to  Jonathan,  the 
son  of  Saul  and  heir  to  the  throne,  that  David  was  to 
be  the  next  king  instead  of  himself;  but  this  did  not 
hinder  his  love  for  his  friend  David. 

Ah,  my  friends,  it  must  have  been  a  real,  true  friend- 
ship that  could  stand  that  sort  of  thing ! 

One  day  David  and  Jonathan  were  taking  a  walk  in 
the  fields  together,  and  Jonathan  says  to  David,  "  It  has 
been  revealed  to  me  that  you  are  to  be  the  king  after 
my  father.  Now,  I  want  you  to  promise  me  one  thing: 
when  you  come  to  the  throne,  if  any  of  the  house  of 
Saul  are  alive  1  want  you  to  be  good  to  them  for  my 
sake." 

"  I'll  do  that,  of  course,"  said  David.  So  he  made  a 
covenant  to  that  effect,  and  then  he  went  off  to  the  cave 
of  Adullam  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  Saul. 

About  four  years  afterward  David  heard  there  had 
been  a  great  battle  over  by  Mount  Gilboa,  and  that 
the  Philistines  had  beaten  the  Israelites  with  great 
slaughter,  and  that  Saul  and  Jonathan   were  both  dead. 


9§        Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

So  he  got  his    men    together,   and    went    out  after  the 
enemies  of  the  Lord  and  of  Israel ;  and  it  wasn't  a  great 
while  before  he  had  turned   the  tables  on  them,  and  set 
up  his  kingdom  at  Hebron,  where  he  reigned  seven  years  ' 
and  a  half. 

It  must  have  been  pretty  near  fourteen  years  before 
David  remembered  his  promise  to  his  old  friend  Jona- 
than— it  is  a  great  deal  easier  to  make  promises  than 
to  keep  them — but  one  day  the  king  was  walking  in 
his  palace  at  Jerusalem,  where  he  had  removed  his 
capital,  and  all  at  once  he  happened  to  think  of  that 
promise. 

"  That's  too  bad  !  "  says  David.  "  I  forgot  all  about 
that  promise.  I  have  been  so  busy  fighting  these  Philis- 
tines, and  fixing  things  up,  that  I  haven't  had  time  to 
think  of  any  thing  else."  So  he  calls  a  servant  in  great 
haste,  and  says,  "  Do  you  know  whether  there  are  any 
of  Saul's  family  living?  " 

The  man  said  there  was  an  old  servant  of  Saul's  by  the 
name  of  Ziba,  and  maybe  he  could  tell. 

"  Go  and  tell  him  I  want  him  right  away." 

When  Ziba  came,  David  said,  "Ziba,  do  you  know 
whether  there  is  any  body  of  the  house  of  Saul  in  my 
kingdom?"  Ziba  said  there  was  one  he  knew  of,  a  son 
of  Jonathan,  by  the  name  of  Mcphibosheth. 

O  how  that  name  "  Jonathan  "  must  have  smitten  the 
heart  of  David  !  One  of  the  sons  of  his  old  friend  living 
in  his  kingdom  for  as  much  as  fourteen  years,  and  he 
had  never  known  it !  What  would  Jonathan  think  of 
him  for  forgetting  his  promise  that  way? 

'-'  Go    fetch    him  !  "    savs    David  ;    "  go    quick.       Tell 


Bible  Portraits    Mephibosheth.  99 

him  I  want  him.  I  want  to  show  him  the  kindness 
of  God." 

Now,  my  friends,  where  do  you  suppose  Mephibosheth 
was  all  the  time?  He  was  down  at  Lo-debar.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  that  place?  There  may  be  some  here 
who  have  been  round  the  world  ;  did  you  ever  come 
across  that  port?  When  you  have  traveled  on  the  rail- 
way diil  an>-  of  you  ever  stop  at  that  station? 

Ah!  yes;  that  is  where  the  whole  human  race  are 
until  they  come  to  Christ  for  salvation  ;  away  down  at 
Lo-debar — which  means  a  place  of  no  pasture. 

The  king-  is  in  haste  to  keep  his  promise  now.  His 
messengers  hurry  off — maybe  they  take  the  king's  own 
chariot — and  rattle  away  to  find  this  son  of  Jonathan. 

When  they  reached  the  little  out-of-the-way  place,  I 
fancy  there  was  a  great  commotion. 

"  Where's  Mephibosheth  ?     The  king  wants  him." 

Poor  fellow  !  when  he  heard  that  he  hung  down  his 
head.  He  was  afraid  the  king  wanted  to  kill  him,  be- 
cause he  was  of  the  house  of  Saul,  his  old  enemy. 

Ah  !  my  friends,  that's  just  the  way  sinners  receive 
Christ's  offer  of  salvation.  They  think  God  hates  them, 
and  wants  to  cut  their  heads  off.  But  that  is  a  great 
mistake. 

"Don't  be.  afraid,"  said  the  servants.  "The  king  sax- 
he  wants  to  show  you  the  kindness  of  God.  He  is  in  a 
great  hurry  to  see  you  ;  so  get  read}-,  and  jump  right  into 
the  chariot.  Don't  you  see  the  king  has  sent  his  own 
chariot  to  fetch  you?" 

It  did  begin  to  look  as  if  the  king  meant  no  harm  to 
him.     But    poor  Mephibosheth    had    another  difficulty. 


ioo      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

He  was  lame  in  both  feet.  He  was  a  little  fellow  when 
David  came  to  the  throne ;  and  an  old  servant,  who  was 
afraid  that  all  the  house  of  Saul  were  going  to  be  killed, 
took  him  up  and  ran  away  to  hide  him.  Somehow  he 
dropped  the  lad  and  lamed  him  in  both  feet. 

And  now  I  can  see  poor  Mephibosheth  looking  down 
at  his  feet.  Maybe  the  toes  turned  in,  or  he  was  club- 
footed.  And  he  says  to  himself,  "  I  am  not  fit  to  go  to 
the  king.  I  am  a  poor  cripple.  I  am  not  fit  to  be  seen 
among  the  tall,  handsome  servants  of  the  palace  in  Jeru- 
salem." 

That's  just  the  way  with  a  convicted  sinner.  He  is  all 
the  time  thinking  of  his  own  unworthiness,  and  saying  to 
himself,  I  am  not  fit  to  be  saved. 

"  Never  mind  your  lame  feet,  Mephibosheth ;  so  long 
as  the  king  sends  for  you  it's  all  right."  So  they  take 
him  up  and  put  him  into  the  chariot,  and  start  for  Jeru- 
salem on  a  run. 

As  soon  as  the  king  sees  him,  he  cries  out :  "  O,  Me- 
phibosheth, the  son  of  my  dear  old  friend  Jonathan  !  you 
shall  have  all  that  belonged  to  the  house  of  Saul ;  and  you 
shall  live  with  me  here  in  my  palace  and  sit  at  my  table." 

What  a  happy  man  he  must  have  been  to  hear  that ! 
Sinner,  that  is  just  what  God  says  to  the  soul  that  comes 
to  him.  He  gives  us  a  great  fortune  of  lov^  and  grace; 
and  he  promises  that  we  shall  live  with  him  in  his  heav- 
enly palace  forever. 

That  is  grace.  David  don't  say,  "  Let  him  come  up 
to  Jerusalem  when  he  gets  ready,"  but  he  sends  away  to 
fetch  him.  "Jerusalem"  means  the  city  of  peace;  and 
Christ  invites  you  to  his  Jerusalem. 


Bible  Portraits— Mephibosheth.  ioi 

Some  people  think  that  Mephibosheth,  like  certain 
low-spirited  Christians,  must  have  been  all  the  time  wor- 
rying over  his  lame  feet  there  in  the  palace  of  the  king, 
but  I  don't  think  so.  He  couldn't  help  it,  and,  if  David 
didn't  mind  it,  it  was  all  right.  So  I  think  that  when 
he  dined  with  him  in  state,  with  the  great  lords  and  la- 
dies all  around  him,  he  just  stuck  his  club-feet  under  the 
table  and  looked  the  king  right  in  the  face. 

That  is  just  the  way  with  the  Gospel.  We  are  God's 
enemies,  and  the  children  of  his  enemies.  We  are  lame, 
and  blind,  and  wretched,  and  ragged,  and  hateful  by 
reason  of  our  sins;  but  the  covenant  of  grace  in  Jesus 
Christ  has  been  made  ;  and  now  God  sends  for  you,  poor 
sinner,  in  the  name  of  his  Son,  to  come  and  eat  bread  at 
his  table,  and  be  a  member  of  his  family,  and  dwell  in 
his  house  forever.  Will  you  come?  Will  you  come 
nozv  ? 


io2      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


THE     PENITENT    THIEF. 

£TL  WANT  to  call  your  attention  to  the  conversion  of 
(^  the  thief  on  the  cross. 

Two  ladies  came  to  me  this  morning,  and  said  that  I 
had  brought  them  into  trouble  by  teaching  that  people 
could  be  converted  suddenly.  I  thought  we  had  got 
that  trouble  all  out  of  the  way  ;  that  we  had  proved  from 
Scripture  that  conversion  is  instantaneous ;  but  I  find 
there  are  a  good  many  still  in  darkness,  so  I  want  to 
give  you  this  example  to  show  that  conversion  is  instan- 
taneous. 

It  gives  us  all  a  great  deal  of  hope  and  comfort  that 
Jesus,  just  before  he  went  back  to  heaven,  saved  such  a 
man  at  all.  He  was  a  thief,  and  the  very  worst  kind  of 
a  thief,  or  else  they  wouldn't  have  punished  him  by 
crucifixion;  and  yet  Christ  not  only  saves  him  from  his 
sins,  but  takes  him  up  with  him  when  he  goes  to  glory. 
Ah,  my  friends,  if  Jesus  isn't  ashamed  of  such  a  man, 
surely  no  sinner  need  to  feel  that  he  is  left  out. 

It  is  a  blessed  fact  that  all  kinds  of  men  and  women 
are  represented  among  the  converts  in  the  Gospels,  and 
almost  all  of  them  were  converted  suddenly.  Very  many 
people  object  to  sudden  conversions  ;  but  you  may  read 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  of  eight  thousand  people 
converted  in  two  days.  That  seems  to  me  rather  quick 
work.  If  all  the  Christians  here  this  morning  would  only 
consecrate  themselves  to  the  work  of  Christ,  they  might 


Bible  Portraits — Penitent  Thief.         103 

be  the  means  of  converting  as  many  as  that  before  the 
week  is  out. 

Now  let  us  look  at  Christ  hanging  on  his  cross  between 
two  thieves  ;  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  wagging  their 
heads  and  jeering  at  him,  his  disciples  gone  away,  and 
only  his  mother  and  one  or  two  other  women  in  sight 
to  cheer  him  with  their  presence  among  all  this  crowd 
of  enemies.  Hear  those  spiteful  Pharisees  calling  out  to 
him,  "  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God  come  down  from  the 
cross,  and  we  will  believe  thee."  And  the  account  says, 
the  two  thieves  "cast  the  same  in  his  teeth." 

So,  then,  the  first  thing  that  we  know  of  our  man  is 
that  he  is  a  reviler  of  Christ.  You  would  think  he 
ought  to  be  doing  something  else  at  such  a  time  as  that ; 
but  hanging  there  in  the  midst  of  his  tortures,  and  cer- 
tain  to  be  dead  in  a  few  hours,  instead  of  confessing  his 
sins  and  preparing  to  meet  the  God  whose  law  he  had 
broken  all  his  life,  he  is  abusing  God's  only  Son.  Surely 
this  man  cannot  sink  any  lower,  until  he  sinks  into  hell ! 

The  next  thing  we  hear  of  him  he  appears  to  be  under 
conviction.  Nobody  is  ever  converted  till  he  is  convicted. 
In  Luke  xxiii,  39-42,  we  read  :  "And  one  of  the  male- 
factors which  were  hanged  railed  on  him,  saying,  If  thou 
be  Christ,  save  thyself  and  us.  But  the  other  answer- 
ing rebuked  him,  saying,  Dost  not  thou  fear  God,  seeing 
thou  art  in  the  same  condemnation?  And  we  indeed 
justly;  for  we  receive  the  due  reward  of  our  deeds:  but 
this  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss." 

Now  what  do  you  suppose  it  was  that  made  this  great 
change  in  this  man's  feelings  in  these  few  hours?  Christ 
hadn't  preached  him    a  sermon;  had  given    him   no  ex- 


104      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

hortation.  The  darkness  had  not  yet  come  on  ;  the  earth 
had  not  opened  its  mouth  ;  the  business  of  death  was 
going  on  as  usual ;  the  crowd  were  still  there,  mocking 
and  hissing,  and  wagging  their  heads:  and  yet  this  man, 
who  in  the  morning  was  railing  at  Christ,  is  now  con- 
fessing his  sins.  "  We  indeed  justly."  No  miracle  had 
been  wrought  before  his  eyes.  The  Son  of  God  had  not 
come  down  from  the  cross.  No  angel  from  heaven  had 
come  to  place  a  glittering  crown  upon  his  head,  instead 
of  the  bloody  crown  of  thorns.  What  was  it,  then,  that 
made  such  a  change  in  him  ?  I  will  tell  you  what  I  think 
it  was.  I  think  it  was  the  Saviour's  prayer — "  Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

I  seem  to  hear  the  thief  talking  with  himself  in  this 
way  : — 

"  What  a  strange  kind  of  man  this  must  be  !  He  says 
he  is  king  of  the  Jews  ;  and  the  superscription  on  his 
cross  says  the  same  thing.  But  what  sort  of  a  throne  is 
this!  He  says  he  is  the  Son  of  God.  Why  does  not 
God  send  down  his  angels,  and  destroy  all  this  great 
crowd  of  people  who  are  torturing  his  Son  ?  If  he  has 
all  power  now,  as  he  used  to  have  when  he  worked 
those  miracles  they  talked  about,  why  does  he  not  bring 
out  his  vengeance  and  sweep  all  these  wretches  into  de- 
struction ?  I  would  do  it  in  a  minute  if  I  had  the 
power.  O !  if  I  could,  I  would  open  the  earth  and 
swallow  up  these  tormentors  !  But  this  man  prays  to 
God  to  'forgive  them.'  Strange!  strange!  He  must 
be  so  different  from  the  rest  of  us.  I  am  sorry  I  said 
one  word  against  him  when  they  first   hung  us  up  here. 

"  What  a  difference  there  is  between  him  and  me  !   Here 


Bible  Portraits — Penitent  Thief.         105 

we  arc  hanging  on  two  crosses,  side  by  side  ;  but  all  the 
rest  of  our  lives  we  have  been  far  enough  apart.  I  have 
been  robbing  and  murdering,  and  he  has  been  feeding 
the  hungry,  healing  the  sick,  and  raising  the  dead.  Now 
these  people  are  railing  at  us  both.  What  a  strange 
world  this  is  !  I  will  not  rail  at  him  any  more.  Indeed, 
I  begin  to  believe  he  must  be  the  Son  of  God  ;  for  surely 
no  man  could  forgive  his  enemies  like  that." 

This  is  what  did  it,  my  friends.  This  poor  man  had 
been  scourged  and  beaten,  and  nailed  to  the  cross,  and 
hung  up  there  for  the  world  to  gaze  upon  ;  and  he  was 
not  sorry  for  his  sins  one  single  bit — did  not  feel  the 
least  conviction  on  account  of  all  that  misery.  But 
when  he  heard  the  Saviour  praying  for  his  murderers, 
that  broke  his  heart. 

I  remember  to  have  heard  a  story,  somewhere,  of  a 
bad  boy  who  had  run  away  from  home.  He  had  given 
his  father  no  end  of  trouble.  He  had  refused  all  the 
invitations  which  his  father  had  sent  him  to  come  home 
and  be  forgiven,  and  help  to  comfort  his  old  heart.  He 
had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  scoff  at  his  father  and  mother. 
Hut  one  day  a  letter  came  telling  him  his  father  was 
dead,  and  they  wanted  him  to  come  home  and  attend 
the  funeral.  At  first  he  determined  he  would  not  go, 
but  then  he  thought  it  would  be  a  shame  not  to  pay 
some  little  respect  to  the  memory  of  so  good  a  man  after 
he  was  dead  ;  and  so,  just  as  a  matter  of  form,  he  took 
the  train,  and  went  to  the  old  home,  sat  through  all  the 
funeral  services,  saw  his  father  buried,  and  came  back 
with  the  rest  of  the  friends  to  the  house,  with  his  heart 
as  cold  and  stony  as  ever.     But  when  the  old  man's  will 


io6      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

was  brought  out  to  be  read,  the  ungrateful  son  found 
that  his  Hither  had  remembered  him  along  with  all  the 
rest  of  the  family  in  the  will,  and  had  left  him  an  inherit- 
ance with  the  others  who  had  not  gone  astray.  This 
broke  his  heart.  It  was  too  much  for  him  that  his  old 
father,  during  all  those  years  in  which  he  had  been  so 
wicked  and  rebellious,  had  never  ceased  to  love  him. 

That  is  just  the  way  our  Father  in  heaven  does  with 
us.  That  is  just  the  way  Jesus  does  with  people  who 
refuse  to  give  their  hearts  to  him.  He  loves  them  in 
spite  of  their  sins  ;  and  it  is  this  love  which,  more  than 
any  thing  else,  brings  hard-hearted  sinners  to  their  knees. 

Now  this  man  confessed  his  sins.  A  man  may  be  very 
sorry  for  his  sins;  but,  if  he  doesn't  confess  them,  he 
has  no  promise  of  being  forgiven.  Hear  him  :  "  We  are 
suffering  justly." 

I  never  knew  any  man  to  be  converted  till  he  con- 
fessed. Cain  felt  bad  enough  over  his  sins,  but  he  didn't 
confess.  Saul  was  greatly  tormented  in  his  mind,  but  he 
went  to  the  witch  of  Endor  rather  than  to  the  Lord. 
Judas  felt  so  bad  over  the  betrayal  of  his  Master  that  he 
went  out  and  hanged  himself;  but  he  did  not  confess, 
that  is,  he  did  not  confess  to  God.  True,  he  went  and 
confessed  to  the  priests,  saying,  "  I  have  sinned  in  that  I 
have  betrayed  the  innocent  blood."  But  it  was  of  no 
use  to  confess  to  them.  They  couldn't  forgive  him. 
What  he  should  have  done  was  to  confess  to  God  ;  but 
instead  of  that,  he  went  right  away  and  hanged  himself. 
How  different  is  the  case  with  this  man!  He  confesses 
his  sins,  and  Christ  has  mercy  on  him  at  once. 

There  is  no  hope  of  a  man  being  saved  until  he  admits 


Bible  Portraits — Penitent  Thief.  107 

himself  to  be  a  sinner,  and  confesses  that  he  deserves  to 
be  punished.  There  is  no  hope  for  the  man  who  folds 
his  arms,  and  says,  "I  don't  think  God  will  punish  sin; 
I  am  going  to  take  the  risk.''  God  never  forgives  a  man 
unless  he  confesses  his  sins. 

The  next  step  is  faith. 

We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  faith  of 
Abraham,  yet  God  had  him  in  training  for  twenty- 
five  years.  There  was  Moses,  who  was  a  very  faithful 
man  ;  but  God  had  him  eighty  years  in  his  school.  Eli- 
jah was  a  man  of  faith,  but  just  see  what  good  reason 
he  had  for  his  faith  ;  how  God  took  care  of  him,  and  fed 
him  in  time  of  famine.  But  here  was  a  man  who  perhaps 
never  saw  a  miracle  ;  a  man  who  had  spent  his  life  among 
criminals  and  blasphemers;  whose  friends  were  thieves 
and  outlaws;  who  was  dying  in  agon}-  in  the  midst  of  a 
crowd  of  people  who  were  reviling  and  rejecting  the  Son 
of  God.  Nailed  to  the  cross,  racked  with  pain  in  ever)' 
nerve,  overwhelmed  with  horror,  his  wicked  soul  in  a 
perfect  tempest  of  passion,  this  poor  wretch  manages  to 
lay  hold  upon  Christ,  and  trust  him  for  a  swift  salva- 
tion. The  faith  of  this  thief,  how  it  Hashes  out  amid  the 
darkness  on  Mount  Calvary!  It  is  the  most  astounding- 
thing  in  the  Bible  ! 

"  This  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss."  Thank  God 
for  such  a  faith  !  How  his  heart  goes  out  to  the  Son  of 
God!  How  glad  he  would  be  to  fall  on  his  knees  at  the 
foot  of  that  cross  and  pour  out  his  prayer  to  Him  who  is 
hanging  on  it!  But  this  he  cannot  do.  His  hands  and 
feet  are  nailed  fast  to  the  wood,  but  they  cannot  nail  his 

es  nor  his  heart.      He  can   at   least    turn  his  head  to 


10S      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

look  upon  the  Sou  of  God,  and  his  breaking  heart  can 
go  out  in  love  to  the  One  who  is  dying  beside  him — 
dying  for  him,  and  dying  for  you  and  me. 

Then  lie  goes  on  to  pray,  "  Lord,  remember  me  when 
thou  coinest  into  thy  kingdom."  Here  is  a  confession 
of  Christ.  He  calls  him  "  Lord."  A  queer  Lord  ;  nails 
through  his  hands  and  feet,  fastening  him  to  the  cross! 
What  a  strange  kind  of  throne  !  No  scepter  in  his  hand, 
no  crown  upon  his  head  ;  the  blood  trickling  down  over 
his  face.  But  he  was  all  the  more  "  Lord  "  because  of 
all  this. 

Sinner,  call  him  "  Lord  "  to-night ;  take  your  place  as 
a  poor  condemned  rebel,  and  cry  out,  "  Lord,  remember 
me !  "  That  wasn't  a  very  long  prayer,  but  you  see  it 
was  a  prevailing  one.  Three  words  :  a  chain  of  three 
golden  links  binding  a  poor  sinner  and  his  Lord  to- 
gether. 

Some  people  think  they  must  have  a  form  of  prayer,  a 
prayer-book,  perhaps,  if  they  are  going  to  address  the 
Throne  of  Grace  properly  ;  but  what  could  that  poor 
fellow  do  with  a  prayer-book  up  there,  hanging  on 
the  cross,  with  both  hands  nailed  fast !  Suppose  it 
had  been  necessary  for  some  priest  or  minister  to  pray 
for  him,  what  could  he  do  ?  There  is  nobody  there  to 
pray  for  him,  and  yet  he  is  going  to  die  in  a  few  hours. 
He  is  out  of  reach  of  help  from  man,  but  God  has 
laid  help  upon  One  who  is  mighty,  and  that  One  is 
close  at  hand. 

"  Lord,  remember  me  when  thou  comest  into  thy 
kingdom." 

Where  was  the  kingdom  of  this  King?     Where  were 


Bible  Portraits— Penitent  Thief.         iog 

his  subjects?  The  soldiers  were  there  to  torture  him 
and  kill  him.  The  people  that  stayed  by  wagged  their 
heads  and  railed  at  him.  When  he  called  for  water  they 
gave  him  gall;  when  he  writhed  in  agony  they  mocked 
him  ;  but  he  was  none  the  less  King  for  all  that.  The 
faith  of  the  poor  thief  went  beyond  that  awful  scene, 
and  looked  into  the  world  to  come. 

Now  look  at  the  answer  to  his  prayer.  Pie  got  more 
than  he  asked,  just  as  every  one  does  who  asks  in  faith. 
He  only  prayed  to  be  "  remembered  "  when  Christ  should 
come  into  his  kingdom  ;  but  Jesus  answers,  I  will  take 
you  right  up  with  me  into  my  kingdom  to-day:  "To- 
day shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  paradise."  That  must 
have  been  a  heavenly  kingdom,  for  surely  there  seemed 
to  be  small  chance  of  a  kingdom  on  earth. 

Christ  says  :  "  Whosoever  shall  confess  me  before  men, 
him  will  I  confess  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
He  looks  kindly  upon  the  thief,  and  says,  "To-day  shalt 
thou  be  with  me  in  paradise." 

And  now  the  darkness  falls  upon  the  earth  ;  the  sun 
hides  itself;  but,  worse  than  all,  the  Father  hides  his 
face  from  the  Son.  What  else  is  the  meaning  of  that 
bitter  cry,  "  My  God  !  my  God  !  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me  ?"  Ah  !  It  had  been  written,  "  Cursed  is  every  one 
that  hangeth  on  a  tree."  Jesus  is  made  a  curse  for  us. 
God  cannot  look  upon  sin  :  and  now  his  own  Son  is  bear- 
ing, in  his  own  body,  the  sins  of  all  the  world  ;  and  so 
God  cannot  look  upon  him. 

I  think  that  is  what  was  heaviest  upon  the  Saviour's 
heart,  away  there  in  the  garden,  when  he  prayed,  "  If 
it  be  possible,   let   this  cup   pass  from    me."      He  could 


no      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

bear  the  unfaithfulness  of  his  friends,  the  spite  of  his 
enemies,  the  pain  of  his  crucifixion,  and  the  shadow  of 
death;  he  could  bear  all  these;  but  when  it  came  to  the 
hiding  of  his  Father's  face,  that  seemed  almost  too  much 
for  even  the  Son  of  God  to  bear.  But  even  this  he  en- 
dured for  our  sins  ;  and  now  the  face  of  God  is  turned 
back  to  us,  whose  sins  had  turned  it  away,  and  looking 
upon  Jesus,  the  sinless  One,  he  sees  our  souls  in  him. 

In  the  midst  of  all  his  agony,  how  sweet  it  must  have 
been  to  Christ  to  hear  that  poor  thief  confessing  him  ! 
He  likes  to  have  men  confess  him. 

Don't  you  remember  his  asking  Peter,  "  Whom  do 
men  say  that  I  am?"  and  when  Peter  answered,  "  Some 
people  say  you  are  Moses,  some  people  say  you  are  Elias, 
and  some  people  say  you  are  one  of  the  old  prophets," 
he  asks  again, 

"  But,  Peter,  whom  do  you  say  I  am  ?  "  And  when 
Peter  says,  "  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,"  Jesus  blesses 
him  for  that  confession.  And  now  this  thief  confesses 
him — confesses  him  in  the  darkness.  Perhaps  it  is  so 
dark  he  cannot  see  him  any  longer  ;  but  he  feels  that 
he  is  there  beside  him.  Christ  wants  us  to  confess  him 
in  the  dark  as  well  as  in  the  light ;  when  it  is  hard  as 
well  as  when  it  is  easy.  For  he  was  not  ashamed  of  us, 
but  bore  our  sins  and  carried  our  sorrows,  even  unto 
death. 

The  last  that  this  unbelieving  world  ever  saw  of  Christ 
he  was  on  the  cross  ;  it  was  only  to  those  who  believed 
on  him  that  he  revealed  himself  after  his  resurrection. 
The  last  business  of  his  life  was  to  save  this  poor  peni- 
tent thief.     That  was  a  part  of  the  glory  of  his  death. 


Bible  Portraits    Penitent  Thief.         hi 

No  doubt  Satan  was  saying  to  himself,  "  I  shall  have 
the  soul  of  that  thief  pretty  soon  down  here  in  the  cav- 
erns of  the  lost  ;  he  belongs  to  me  ;  he  has  belonged  to 

me  all  these  years."  But  in  his  last  hours  the  poor 
wretch  cries  out  to  the  Lord,  and  Jesus  snaps  the  fetters 
that  have  bound  his  soul,  and  sets  him  at  liberty.  The 
Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  seizes  the  prey  from  the  jaws 
of  the  lion  of  hell. 

I  have  known  people  who  had  sick  relatives,  and  be- 
cause they  couldn't  get  a  minister  to  come  to  the  house 
and  administer  the  sacrament  they  were  greatly  dis- 
tressed and  troubled.  But  this  man  never  took  the  sac- 
rament. I  know  of  some  others  who  were  greatly  exer- 
cised because  little  children  were  dying  unbaptized — 
have  seen  them  carry  them  through  the  streets  because 
the  pastor  couldn't  come.  I  am  not  saying  any  thing 
against  the  ordinance  by  which  we  commemorate  the 
death  of  our  Saviour.  God  forbid  !  but  let  me  say  it  is 
not  necessary  to  salvation.  I  might  die  and  be  lost  be- 
fore I  could  get  to  the  Lord's  supper;  but  if  I  get  to 
the  Lord  I  shall  be  saved.  Thank  God,  salvation  is 
within  my  reach  !  All  I  have  to  do  is  to  reach  out  my 
hand  and  take  it. 

The  poor  thief  had  certainly  never  been  baptized.  If 
he  wanted  to  be,  they  wouldn't  have  permitted  it.  If  all 
the  congregations  in  Chicago  had  been  there,  there  would 
have  been  no  one  to  help  him.  We  wouldn't  admit  such 
a  man  to  the  Lord's  table.  But  the  good  Lord  took  him 
right  to  his  bosom. 

If  we  are  saved,  let  us  go  to  the  Lord's  table,  con- 
fers lu'ni,  follow  him,  and   obey  him — do  what   he  bid-; 


ii2      Moody :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

but  let  us  keep  salvation  in  ;ts  place.  It  is  distinct  and 
separate  from  every  thing  else.  If  a  man  wants  to  be 
saved  he  can  be  saved  without  leaving  this  hall — with- 
out lifting  an  eye  or  a  hand. 

If  the  thief  had  lived  fifty  years  he  could  not  have 
done  better  service  for  Christ  than  he  did.  Why  not 
make  the  prayer  of  the  thief?  You  can  make  it — 
saint  and  sinner.  If  you  make  it  from  your  hearts 
God  will  answer  to-night.  You  wont  have  to  wait  un- 
til you  get  home.  We  have  communication  from  this 
Tabernacle  with  the  throne  of  God,  and  our  prayers  can 
go  up  and  be  answered  before  the  meeting  is  over.  Sup- 
pose we  make  the  supplication  now,  "  Lord — remember 
— me  !  "  Who  cannot  say  that  ?  And  who  cannot  say 
it  from  the  heart?  It  is  just  that  short  prayer  which 
will  bring  blessing. 

That  is  what  I  call  sudden  conversion — men  calling 
on  God  for  salvation  and  getting  it.  You  certainly  wont 
get  it  unless  you  call  for  it — unless  you  take  it  when  he 
offers  it  to  you.  If  you  want  him  to  remember  you — to 
save  you — call  upon  him. 

The  Cross  of  Christ  divides  this  congregation.  There 
are  only  two  sides,  those  for  Christ,  and  those  against 
him.  Think  of  the  two  thieves  ;  one  went  down  to  death 
cursing  God,  and  the  other  went  to  glory. 

What  a  contrast !  In  the  morning  he  is  led  out,  a  con- 
demned criminal ;  in  the  evening  he  is  saved  from  his 
sins.  In  the  morning  he  is  cursing;  in  the  evening  he  is 
singing  hallelujahs  with  a  choir  of  angels.  In  the  morn- 
ing he  is  condemned  by  men  as  not  fit  to  live  on  earth; 
in  the   evening  he  is  reckoned  good  enough  for  heaven. 


Bible  Portraits — Penitent  Thief.  113 

Christ  was  not  ashamed  to  walk  arm-in-arm  with  him 
down  the  golden  pavements  of  the  eternal  city. 

He  had  heard  the  Saviour's  cry,  "  It  is  finished  !  "  lie 
had  seen  the  spear  thrust  into  his  side.  Jesus  had  died 
before  his  very  eyes,  and  hastened  before  him  to  get  .1 
place  ready  for  this  first  soul  brought  from  the  world  he 
had  just  redeemed. 

You  have  heard  of  the  child  who  did  not  like  to  die 
and  go  to  heaven  because  he  didn't  know  any  body 
there.  But  the  thief  had  one  acquaintance:  even  the 
Master  of  the  place.  I  can  hear  the  Lord  calling,  "  Ga- 
briel, prepare  a  chariot ;  make  haste :  there  is  a  friend 
of  mine  hanging  upon  that  cross.  They  are  breaking  his 
legs.  He  soon  will  be  ready  to  come.  Make  haste  and 
bring  him  to  me."  And  the  angel  in  the  chariot  sweeps 
down  the  sky,  takes  up  the  soul  of  the  poor  penitent 
thief,  and  hastens  back  again  to  glory;  while  the  gates 
of  the  city  swing  wide  open,  and  the  angels  shout  their 
welcome  to  this  poor  sinner  "  washed  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb." 

And  that,  my  friends,  is  just  what  Christ  wants  to  do 
for  every  sinner  here.  That  is  the  business  on  which  he 
came  down  from  heaven.  That  is  win-  he  died  :  and  if 
he  gives  such  great  and  swift  salvation  to  this  poor  thief 
on  the  cross,  surely  he  will  give  you  the  same  if,  like 
the  penitent  thief,  you  will  repent,  and  confess,  and  trust 
in  the  Saviour. 

Somebody  says  that  this  man  "  was  saved  at  the 
eleventh  hour."  I  don't  know  about  that.  It  might 
have  been  the  first  hour  with  him.  Perhaps  he  never 
knew  Christ  until  he  was  led  out  to  die  beside  him.     This 


114      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

may  have  been  the  very  first  time  he  ever  had  a  chance 
to  know  the  Son  of  God. 

How  many  of  you  gave  your  hearts  to  Christ  the  very 
first  time  he  asked  them  of  you  ?  Arc  you  not  farther 
along  in  the  day  than  even  that  poor  thief? 

A  little  while  ago,  in  one  of  the  mining  districts  of 
England,  a  young  man  attended  one  of  our  meetings  and 
refused  to  go  from  the  place  till  he  had  found  peace 
in  the  Saviour.  The  next  day  he  went  down  into  the 
pit  and  the  coal  fell  in  upon  him;  and  when  they  took 
him  out  he  was  broken  and  mangled,  and  had  only  two 
or  three  minutes  of  life  left  in  him.  His  friends  gath- 
ered about  him,  saw  his  lips  moving,  and,  bending  down 
their  ears  to  catch  his  words,  this  was  what  they  heard 
him  say : — 

"It  was  a  good  thing  I  settled  it  last  night." 

Settle  it  now,  my  friends,  once  for  all.  Begin  now  to 
confess  your  sins,  and  pray  the  Lord  to  remember  you 
when  he  cometh  into  his  kingdom. 


Bible  Portraits — Lot.  u 


THE   CHARACTER   OF    LOT. 

The  following  discourse  to  parents  was  preached  before  an  immense 
congregation  in  the  Chicago  Tabernacle. 

Mr.  Sankey  sang  the  solo,  "Nothing  but  Leaves."  The  Scripture 
lesson  was  a  part  of  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  Luke,  beginning  with 
the  twenty-peighth  verse,  in  which  Christ  is  answering  the  Pharisee 
who  had  demanded  of  him  when  the  kingdom  of  God  should  come. 
"  Likewise  also  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lot ;  they  did  eat,  they  drank, 
they  bought,  they  sold,  they  planted,  they  builded ;  but  the  same 
day  that  Lot  went  out  of  Sodom  it  rained  lire  and  brimstone  from 
heaven,  and  destroyed  them  all.  Even  thus  shall  it  be  in  the  day 
when  the  Son  of  man  is  revealed." 

5TL  WANT  to  speak  to-night  on  the  life  of  Lot.  I  have 
0^,  chosen  him  for  a  subject  because  he  is  a  represent- 
ative man.  There  are  hundreds  of  men  like  him  in  Chi- 
cago. Where  there  is  one  Abraham,  or  one  Daniel,  or 
one  Elijah,  you  may  find  a  thousand  Lots. 

This  man  seems  to  have  started  out  in  life  well  enough, 
but  it  wasn't  a  great  while  before  he  got  rich,  and  that  was 
the  beginning  of  all  his  troubles.  He  lived  with  his  old 
uncle,  Abraham,  until  he  became  possessed  of  large  flocks 
and  herds,  so  that  there  was  hardly  room  enough  in  the 
country  where  they  lived  for  his  cattle  and  those  of  his 
uncle.  After  a  while  there  arose  a  strife  among  the  herd- 
men  of  the  two  flocks  as  to  what  part  of  the  land  they 
should  occupy  ;  but,  however  much  the  herdmen  might 
quarrel,  he  couldn't  get  up  a  quarrel  with  Abraham.  That 
friend  of  God  didn't  want  to  get  into  trouble  out  there 
among  those  heathen,  who,  if  they  saw  him  angry  over 


n6      Moodv.  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

such  a  matter,  would  say  he  was  not  a  whit  better  than 
themselves.  So  he  says  to  Lot,  "  Is  not  the  whole  land 
before  thee  ?  separate  thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from  me  :  if 
thou  wilt  take  the  left  hand,  I  will  go  to  the  right  ;  or  if 
thou  depart  to  the  right  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  left." 

If  Lot  had  not  been  so  selfish  he  would  have  given  his 
old  uncle  the  first  choice  instead  of  taking  it  himself,  but 
he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  saw  the  plain  of  Jordan  :  it  was 
well-watered  and  fruitful ;  so  he  says,  "  I  will  take  that." 
He  chose  the  best  for  himself,  you  see,  and  then  pitched 
his  tent  toward  Sodom.  He  might  have  been  a  pretty 
good  man  up  to  this  time,  but  then  he  began  to  backslide. 

Perhaps  he  was  ambitious  to  be  richer  than  Abraham, 
and  so  he  chose  for  himself,  instead  of  letting  God  choose 
for  him. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Sodomites  who  got  acquainted 
with  him  said  he  was  a  very  shrewd  man  ;  a  very  sharp 
business  man  ;  and  predicted  that  he  would  some  time  be 
very  rich. 

How  long  he  stayed  in  the  plain  we  don't  know  ;  but 
after  awhile  we  find  him  living  in  Sodom.  What  business 
had  Lot  to  be  living  in  Sodom  ?  He  knew  what  sort  of 
people  the  Sodomites  were,  for  he  had  pitched  his  tent  in 
their  neighborhood.  He  knew  they  were  a  wicked,  idol- 
atrous, iniquitous  people  ;  but,  perhaps,  he  felt  that  busi- 
ness was  pressing  ;  he  had  a  large  number  of  people  de- 
pendent upon  him,  and  probably  he  thought  he  could 
make  money  faster  by  going  into  Sodom  than  he  could  by 
staying  outside  and  giving  his  attention  to  his  cattle. 

Lot  went  into  Sodom  with  his  eyes  open.  He  knew  he 
was  taking  his  children   into  bad  company,  and  bringing 


Bible  Portraits — Lot.  117 

his  household  into  the  midst  of  the  most  abominable 
heathen  ;  but  the  main  question  with  him  seems  to  have 
been  business,  business  ;  money,  money  !  How  many  of 
you,  fathers,  are  doing  just  the  same  thing? 

The  next  we  hear  of  Lot  he  is  in  trouble.  They  who 
go  to  live  in  Sodom  must  take  the  fate  of  Sodom.  The 
Sodomites  were  at  war  with  some  of  their  neighbors,  who 
came  up  with  a  scouting  party,  seized  some  of  the  people, 
and  carried  them  away  into  captivity.  Among  those 
captives  was  Lot ;  and  I  suppose  he  would  have  spent 
the  rest  of  his  days  as  a  slave  if  his  old  uncle  Abraham 
hadn't  heard  about  it,  and  taken  a  band  of  three  hundred 
and  eighteen  of  his  servants,  and  pursued  after  the  cap- 
tors, and  rescued  the  captives  and  spoil. 

Now  see  the  difference  between  these  two  men.  When 
Abraham  comes  back  from  his  expedition  he  meets  Mel- 
chizcdek,  a  priest  of  the  most  high  God,  and  gives  him 
tithes  of  all  the  spoil  he  has  taken,  Then  he  meets  the 
king  of  Sodom,  who  is  very  glad  to  make  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  to  have  his  captives  brought  back  again  ;  so  he 
says,  "  Now,  Abraham,  you  take  the  goods  for  your  share, 
and  give  me  back  the  captives  for  my  share." 

"  No,"  says  Abraham,  "  I  have  made  a  vow  to  the  Lord, 
the  most  high  God,  that  I  will  not  take  any  thing  that  is 
thine,  lest  thou  should  say,  I  have  made  Abraham  rich." 
You  see,  Abraham  didn't  want  any  Sodomite  wealth,  but 
Lot  was  keen  to  get  all  he  could  of  it. 

Now  you  would  suppose  Lot  would  say  to  himself,  I 
have  had  enough  of  Sodom  ;  I  will  get  out  of  the  way 
of  these  miserable  heathen.  But  perhaps  he  had  lost 
money  in  some  operation,  and  he  wanted  to  go  back  into 


1 1 8      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

Sodom  and  make  it  up.  I  have  no  doubt  that  after  a 
while  Lot  became  a  great  man  in  Sodom — one  of  the 
best  business  men  in  the  place  :  probably  he  had  a 
good  many  corner  lots,  and  some  fine  business  blocks, 
with  his  name  upon  them.  Perhaps  they  admired  his 
talent  in  money-making  so  much  that  they  made  him 
mayor  of  Sodom,  or  judge — Judge  Lot,  that  sounds  very 
well — or  may  be  they  sent  him  to  Congress,  if  they  had 
one.  Probably  Mrs.  Lot  had  a  very  fine  turn-out;  the 
handsomest  horses  and  carriage  in  all  the  city  ;  and  the 
Misses  Lot  were  the  most  fashionable  young  ladies,  and 
had  the  handsomest  dresses  of  any  young  women  in  all 
Sodom. 

But  one  evening,  while  Lot  was  sitting  in  the  gate 
of  Sodom,  he  saw  two  strangers  coming,  whom  he  knew 
were  angels,  because  he  had  seen  them  twenty  years 
before  at  the  house  of  his  uncle  Abraham.  So  he  bowed 
himself  down  at  their  feet,  and  begged  them  to  do  him 
the  honor  of  lodging  with  him.  The  angels  didn't  like 
to  go  inside  the  gate,  and  spend  the  night  in  Sodom, 
so  they  said,  "  Nay  ;  but  we  will  abide  in  the  street  all 
night."  However,  Lot  urged  them  so  hard  that  they  en- 
tered into  the  city  with  him,  and  went  to  his  house,  where 
he  made  them  a  feast. 

They  hadn't  been  there  a  great  while  before  a  mob  of 
Sodomites  gathered  around  the  house,  and  made  a  terri- 
ble uproar.  Lot  must  have  been  very  much  ashamed  of 
his  neighbors,  and  we  learn  that  he  went  out  and  tried 
to  make  them  behave  themselves  ;  but  they  laughed  at 
him,  and  abused  him,  and  if  the  angels  hadn't  struck  them 
blind  there  is  no  telling  what  they  might  have  done. 


Bible  Portraits — Lot.  i  i., 

Poor  Lot  was  dreadfully  frightened  when  he  heard  the 
Sodomites  trying  to  break  his  door  down,  and  was  very 
glad  to  have  the  angels  there  to  protect  him.  Then  these 
strangers  inquired  if  he  had  any  relatives  in  Sodom  be- 
sides those  that  lived  in  his  own  house,  "For,"  said  they, 
"  we  are  come  down  to  destroy  this  city  whose  cry  is 
waxed  great  before  the  face  of  the  Lord."  Then  Lot  was 
obliged  to  confess  that  he  had  given  some  of  his  daugh- 
ters to  be  married  to  some  of  those  wicked  young  Sod- 
omites. 

"You  go  and  fetch  them,"  said  the  angels,  "for  to- 
morrow morning  the  Lord  will  destroy  the  city." 

Poor  man  !  he  finds  that  the  way  of  the  world  is  not  the 
way  of  the  largest  profit  after  all.  Those  fine  buildings 
of  his  will  all  go  down  in  ashes,  and  up  in  smoke  ;  all  his 
speculations  will  come  to  nothing  ;  but  the  poor  man  is  so 
much  frightened  for  his  life  and  the  life  of  his  family  that 
he  has  not  much  time  to  think  about  his  real  estate. 

I  can  see  him  groping  his  way  along  the  streets  of 
Sodom,  dodging  all  the  sons  of  Belial  that  he  sees,  until 
he  comes  to  the  house  of  the  man  who  has  married  his 
oldest  daughter.  He  pounds  on  the  door  until  somebody 
puts  his  head  out  of  the  window  and  asks  what  he  wants. 
It  is  one  of  his  sons-in-law,  and  the  poor  man,  trembling 
from  head  to  foot,  tries  to  tell  him  about  the  visit  of  the 
angels,  and  how  the  Lord  is  going  to  destroy  the  city  to- 
morrow', and  that  he  must  take  his  wife  and  come  over  to 
his  house  immediately. 

But  his  son-in-law  laughs  at  him  ;  "  Ho,  ho,"  says  he, 
"you  go  home  and  go  to  bed.  Don't  be  making  a  fool 
of  yourself  out  here  in    the   street,   at  midnight,   waking 


120      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

people  up  with  such  a  silly  story  as  that !  Sodom  was 
never  so  prosperous  in  all  its  history  as  it  is  in  these  days. 
Don't  you  imagine  that  it's  going  to  be  destroyed." 

Now  the  poor  man  is  in  greater  trouble  than  ever.  His 
son-in-law  wont  believe  him,  and  he  is  obliged  to  leave 
his  daughter  to  perish  with  those  sinners.  He  begs 
and  entreats  that  if  he  wont  come  himself,  he  will  at 
least  give  him  his  daughter  ;  but  the  man  abuses  him,  and 
shuts  the  window,  and  refuses  to  hear  any  thing  more  from 
him.  Then  the  old  man  goes  to  the  house  of  another  son- 
in-law,  and  wakes  him  up,  and  tells  him  the  same  terrible 
tale,  and  he  makes  fun  of  it  in  the  same  way  ;  and  the 
broken-hearted  old  man,  finding  that  both  his  daughters 
are  hopelessly  lost,  mourns  the  day  he  ever  came  to  Sodom. 
There  is  nothing  for  him  now  but  to  go  home  and  tell  the 
angels  that  he  cannot  make  those  people  believe  that  the 
city  is  to  be  destroyed. 

O,  you  fathers  and  mothers  who  have  given  your  chil- 
dren over  to  wicked,  worldly-minded  influences,  and  set 
them  up  in  life  according  to  the  fashion  of  this  world,  with 
people  who  don't  fear  God  or  keep  his  commandments  ; 
what  do  you  suppose  that  old  man  thought  then  about 
marrying  his  daughters  to  wicked  men  of  the  world  just 
because  they  were  rich  ? 

As  soon  as  ever  it  was  light  the  angels  hastened  Lot, 
saying,  "  Arise,  take  thy  wife,  and  thy  two  daughters,  which 
are  here  ;  lest  thou  be  consumed  in  the  iniquity  of  the 
city."  But  Lot  couldn't  bear  to  go  and  leave  his  proper- 
ty to  be  destroyed,  and  leave  his  other  daughters  to  be 
burned  up,  and  so  we  find  that  he  lingered  until  "  the  men 
laid  hold  upon  his  hand,  and  upon  the  hand  of  his  wife, 


Bible  Portraits — Lot.  j2i 

and  upon  the  hand  of  his  two  daughters  ;  .  .  .  and  they 
brought  him  forth,  and  set  him  without  the  city." 

Poor  worldly-minded  people !  their  hearts  were  so  set 
upon  Sodom  that  even  the  angels  could  hardly  get  them 
out  of  it  ;  still  I  suppose,  partly  for  the  sake  of  his  old  un- 
cle, Abraham,  the  Lord  wouldn't  let  Lot  be  destroyed  in 
Sodom.  But  there  was  his  wife,  whose  heart  was  wholly 
set  upon  this  world  ;  in  spite  of  all  the  urging  of  the  angels, 
she  couldn't  bear  to  go  away  and  leave  her  fine  house,  and 
all  her  elegant  furniture,  and  all  her  nice  dresses  to  be 
burned  up  with  fire  and  brimstone.  When  she  ought  to 
have  been  running  with  all  her  might  to  get  out  of  the 
way  of  the  coming  storm  she  stopped  and  looked  back, 
thinking,  probably,  what  a  great  loss  she  was  suffering  : 
or  perhaps  she  was  thinking  of  her  daughters  who  had 
been  left  behind.  And  the  Lord,  seeing  that  her  heart 
was  set  upon  Sodom,  let  her  stay  there  ;  and  while  her 
husband  and  daughters  escaped  to  Zoar,  she  became  a 
pillar  of  salt.  She  and  Sodom  remained  together  in  their 
destruction. 

I  have  not  time  this  evening  to  follow  this  man  to 
the  end  of  his  miserable  life.  We  know  that  it  was 
wretched  and  disgraceful,  and  that  his  fortune,  which 
seemed  so  favorable  while  he  was  with  his  uncle  in  the 
way  of  righteousness,  all  turned  to  ashes  and  misery  when 
he  got  into  Sodom. 

I  pray  you,  business  men,  be  warned  by  the  life  of  this 
worldly-minded  man.  If  you  are  a  member  of  the  Church 
and  are  getting  rich  and  increasing  in  goods,  don't  forget 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  says,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  his  righteousness;  and  all  these  things 


122       Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

shall  be  added  unto  you."     Keep  out  of  Sodom  for  your 
own  sake  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  your  family. 

And  you,  Christian  parents,  with  a  family  of  daughters, 
see  to  it  that  you  don't  marry  them  to  wicked  men. 
The  wealth  of  Sodom,  and  the  fashion  of  Sodom,  and 
the  society  of  Sodom,  may  seem  to  be  very  desirable, 
but  the  end  of  all  these  things  is  sorrow,  and  destruction, 
and  wrath.  O,  ye  worldly-minded  men  and  women  of  the 
Church,  keep  out  of  Sodom,  lest  you  perish  in  its  plagues  ! 


Bible  Portraits — Cornelius.  123 


CORNELIUS. 

During  the  first  part  of  the  Chicago  Revival  the  Noonday  Prayer- 
meeting  was  held  in  Farwell  11.41.  where  Mr.  Moody  gave  a  series  of 
admirable  Bible  Readings  and  brief  Illustrations  of  Scripture  Charac- 
ters and  Incidents,  of  which  the  following  sketch  of  Cornelius  is  one. 

"X\2frc7"E  want  one  meeting  a  week  in  Farwell  Hall,  at 
V,V  which  the  way  of  life  shall  be  explained.  A  good 
many  people  come  to  the  Noon  Meeting  who  cannot  come 
to  the  Tabernacle,  and  we  want  to  show  then  how  to 
come  to  Christ.  I  will  call  your  attention  this  morning 
to  the  conversion  of  Cornelius,  and  try  to  point  out  the 
way  in  which  you,  like  him,  may  become  a  Christian. 

In  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Acts  we  find  that  Peter  was 
brought  before  the  brethren  at  Jerusalem,  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  himself  for  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Gen- 
tiles. Christ  had  told  his  disciples  to  go  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  but  the 
idea  never  seemed  to  get  into  their  heads  ;  and  I  don't 
know  as  we  should  ever  have  had  the  Gospel  at  all  if  it 
hadn't  been  for  the  persecutions  which  drove  the  apostles 
out  of  Jerusalem.  Peter  belongs  to  the  exclusive  brethren, 
and  when  he  is  told  to  go  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  Cor- 
nelius he  must  have  a  sheet  let  down  from  heaven  three 
times  in  order  to  show  him  that  what  God  has  cleansed  he 
must  not  call  common  or  unclean  ;  and  to  show  him  that  it 
is  his  duty  to  preach  to  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews. 

In  the  fourteenth  verse  of  this  chapter,  Peter  is  telling 


124      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

them  how  he  happened  to  go.  He  says  he  was  sent  for 
by  Cornelius  to  tell  him  "  words  "  whereby  he  and  all  his 
house  should  be  saved.  Now  just  look  at  that.  Cornelius 
wasn't  to  be  saved  by  his  feelings,  nor  his  efforts,  nor  his 
alms  ;  he  was  to  be  saved  by  words;  the  words  of  Peter 
preaching  Jesus  Christ  to  him  ;  and  by  such  words  not 
only  Cornelius  and  all  his  House,  but  all  sinners  every- 
where, are  to  be  brought  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Let  us  take  a  look  at  Cornelius.  If  we  had  such  a 
man  here  among  us  we  should  find  him  a  regular  at- 
tendant at  Church,  and  one  who  said  his  prayers  every 
day.  He  was  a  devout  man,  and  feared  God  with  all  his 
house.  He  was  a  benevolent  man,  also.  He  gave  much 
alms  to  the  people.  I  don't  doubt  he  would  give  away  a 
great  many  Thanksgiving  turkeys  about  this  time  01 
year.  And  what  is  more,  the  Bible  says  "  He  prayed  to 
God  always." 

Now,  a  great  many  people  would  say,  "  Such  a  man  as 
that  doesn't  need  converting  ;  he  is  good  enough  already." 
But  the  Lord  didn't  seem  to  think  so,  for  we  find  him 
getting  up  a  meeting — about  the  only  meeting  he  ever 
did  get  up — in  order  to  have  Cornelius  converted. 

He  tells  him  to  send  men  to  Joppa  and  call  for  one 
Simon,  whose  surname  is  Peter.  This  Gentile  is  com- 
manded to  send  off  after  a  Jew  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
him  ;  just  the  kind  of  a  man  he  didn't  like  ;  and  so  you  will 
often  find  that  God  sends  his  message  of  grace  and  mercy 
to  people  by  the  very  last  means  they  would  have  chosen. 

In  the  sixth  verse  of  the  chapter  we  find  that  the  Lord 
knew  the  house,  and  the  street,  and  the  name  of  the  man 
where  his  servant  Peter  was   lodged :  "  He  lodgeth  with 


Bible  Portraits— Cornelius.  125 

one  Simon,  a  tanner,  whose  house  is  by  the  seaside." 
God  always  knows  all  about  his  own  people.  So  Cornelius 
sends  his  body-guard  thirty  miles  away  to  Joppa,  and 
when  they  tell  Peter  their  errand  he  goes  away  with  them 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  this  Gentile. 

In  the  last  part  of  this  chapter  we  have  the  substance 
of  Peter's  sermon  on  this  occasion.  Now,  what  was  it  that 
he  preached  to  Cornelius  ?  He  didn't  preach  science,  nor 
literature,  nor  a  great  long  mess  of  theology,  but  he 
preached  unto  him  Jesus  Christ,  whom  he  declared  to  be 
"  Lord  of  all."  He  believed  in  the  divinity  of  Christ,  you 
see.  That  was  the  substance  of  Peter's  preaching  always 
— Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified.  That  was  pretty  much 
all  he  knew  how  to  preach.  If  you  had  taken  that  away 
from  him,  you  would  have  taken  all  his  stock  in  trade. 

He  preached  a  short  sermon,  and  came  right  to  the 
point,  "Whosoever  believeth  on  Him  shall  receive  remis- 
sion of  sins  ;"  and  when  he  got  to  this  point  in  the  discourse 
we  are  told  that  "  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  all  them  which 
heard  the  word."  Now,  I  suppose  there  might  have  been 
some  people  there  who  did  not  hear ;  perhaps  they  were 
looking  around,  paying  attention  to  other  things  besides 
the  "  words"  that  Peter  was  preaching  ;  and,  if  there  were 
any  such,  the  Holy  Ghost  didn't  fall  on  them,  but  only  on 
those  who  heard  the  word. 

My  friends,  you  who  hear  the  word  of  God  to-day,  ac- 
cept it  as  Cornelius  did,  with  all  your  house,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  will  fall  on  you  as  it  did  on  them. 

Now,  that  is  plain  enough,  and  that  is  just  the  way  to 
be  saved.  May  the  Holy  Ghost  fall  upon  us  now  and 
seal  us  to  the  day  of  redemption  ! 


126      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


THE    PRODIGAL    SON. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  of  the  Tabernacle  services  during  Mr. 
Moody's  work  in  Chicago  was  that  which  included  his  discourse  on 
"The  Prodigal  Son."  The  Rev.  W.  H.  Brown,  the  Wisconsin  Evan- 
gelist, in  his  opening  prayer  turned  the  beautiful  parable  into  a 
touching  and  appropriate  petition  to  the  throne  of  grace.  Mr. 
Sankey  sang  the  favorite  solos,  "Calling  Now,"  and  "  The  Ninety 
and  Nine,"  after  which  Mr.  Moody  said  : — 

T\\^7E  have  for  our  text  to-night  the  man  Mr.  Sankey 
J^)t  has  been  singing  about  The  trouble  with  him  was 
the  same  as  with  nine  tenths  of  the  men  in  this  city  who 
are  away  from  God  to-night.  He  started  out  wrong.  If 
any  one  had  told  the  young  man  that  he  needed  the  grace 
of  God  to  keep  him  when  he  was  starting  out  to  make  his 
fortune  he  might  have  laughed  at  it,  but  we  see  how  poor- 
ly he  got  along  without  it. 

I  don't  know  why  he  wanted  to  go  away  from  home. 
Perhaps  he  thought  his  father  was  too  strict,  because  he 
wouldn't  let  him  stay  out  late  at  night ;  perhaps  he 
couldn't  get  along  well  with  his  elder  brother ;  maybe  his 
mother  had  died  and  left  him  to  the  care  of  some  one  who 
didn't  love  him.  Perhaps  she  had  died  praying  for  her 
wayward  son,  and  he  wanted  to  get  away  from  the  place, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  forget  her  prayers,  that  troubled  him 
every  time  he  thought  of  them. 

So  he  goes  to  his  father  and  says,  "  Father,  I  think  I 
could  get  along  better  if  you  would  divide  your  estate,  and 
give  me  my  share  now,  and  let  me  go  and  begin  life  for 


Bible  Portraits — Prodigal  Sox.  127 

myself."  I  suppose  the  old  gentleman  was  rich,  and 
perhaps,  weak-minded  ;  at  any  rate  he  made  a  very  great 
mistake.  There  is  nothing  worse  for  a  young  man  than 
to  give  him  plenty  of  money  and  send  him  out  into  the 
world  alone.  People  talk  a  great  deal  about  self-made 
men,  and  about  poor  men's  sons  who  have  to  struggle  for 
their  places  in  the  world  ;  but  I  tell  you,  I  have  a  great 
deal  more  respect  for  the  rich  man's  son  who  turns  out 
well  than  for  the  poor  boy  who  has  to  work  his  way  in 
the  world.  There  is  nothing  that  puts  so  many  tempta- 
tions in  a  young  man's  way  as  having  plenty  of  money. 

Well,  the  young  man  took  his  money  and  went  off;  per- 
haps he  went  clown  to  Egypt  to  get  as  far  away  from  home 
as  possible  ;  and  having  plenty  of  money  I  have  no  doubt 
he  was  very  well  received,  and  became  very  popular.  He 
was  well  educated  and  agreeable  ;  perhaps  was  able  to  sing, 
and  could  entertain  his  friends  with  comic  songs.  He 
used  to  go  to  the  opera  four  nights  in  the  week,  and  the  oth- 
er three  nights  he  spent  at  the  theater  and  billiard  rooms. 
He  was  certain  to  have  plenty  of  friends  as  long  as  his 
money  lasted,  but  after  awhile  he  got  to  the  end  of  his 
rope,  and  then  his  friends  all  deserted  him  ;  just  as  they 
did  a  poor  fellow  whom  I  once  knew,  who  had  plenty  of 
friends  and  money,  but  after  awhile  he  broke  down,  and 
got  into  jail,  and  not  one  of  his  sporting  friends  ever  came 
near  him.  Some  Christian  people  who  were  visiting  at 
the  jail  went  to  see  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and 
that  woke  him  up  to  understand  who  his  real  friends 
were. 

We  read  that  after  awhile  this  prodigal  began  to  be  in 
want.     I  lis  friends  were  gone,  and  he  had  got  down  very 


128       Moody  :  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

low,  but  I  am  happy  to  say,  he  didn't  get  down  low  enough 
to  beg. 

There  was  no  meaner  thing  a  Jew  could  do  than  to  take 
care  of  swine  ;  but  it  is  very  much  to  his  credit  that  he 
chose  to  do  this  rather  than  lie  around  the  streets  loafing 
and  begging.  1  had  a  thousand  times  rather  be  a  swine- 
herd than  a  beggar. 

I  can  sec  him  there  among  the  swine-troughs,  ragged 
and  hungry,  the  tears  standing  in  his  eyes,  as  he  thinks  of 
his  father's  well-filled  table  ;  a  long  table,  with  a  good  many 
people  around  it,  but  not  long  enough  to  reach  to  him  in 
that  far  away  country. 

We  find  that  no  one  gave  him  any  thing  to  eat.  If  he 
had  been  a  pig  they  might  have  fed  him,  but  being  noth- 
ing but  a  man  he  was  left  to  take  care  of  himself. 

O,  my  friends,  that  is  just  the  way  with  the  devil.  He 
will  lead  you  away  from  home,  and  off  into  a  far  country, 
and  into  pleasure  and  vice,  and  then,  when  you  have  lost 
every  thing  in  his  service,  he  will  push  you  clown,  down,' 
down  ;  and  when  he  gets  you  into  the  ditch,  or  into  the 
pit  of  ruin,  instead  of  giving  you  any  thing  to  help  you  he 
will  laugh  at  you,  and  mock  you  for  your  folly. 

There  was  another  thing  which  the  prodigal  lost  besides 
his  money,  and  that  was,  his  testimony.  Some  of  those 
old  friends  of  his,  if  they  chanced  to  see  him  out  there 
among  the  swine,  would  doubtless  laugh  at  him,  and  he, 
perhaps,  would  straighten  himself  up  and  say,  "  You  laugh 
at  me,  and  call  me  a  fool  and  a  vagabond  because  I  am 
poor,  and  all  in  rags,  but  you  needn't  be  so  proud.  I 
belong  to  a  respectable  family ;  my  father  has  plenty  of 
money ;  he  lives  in  a  fine  house,  and  even  his  servants 


Bible  Portraits — Prodigal  Son.  129 

dress  better  than  you  do."  How  those  young  fellows  would 
laugh  at  that !  "  Your  father  rich  !  You  look  like  it,  don't 
you  ?  Your  father  have  servants  !  Your  father  have 
clothes  !  "  And  then  the  poor  fellow,  thinking  of  himself, 
couldn't  answer  them  a  word.  '  He  had  lost  his  testimony  : 
nobody  would  believe  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  great  rich 
man,  up  there  in  Judea. 

Just  so  every  backslider  from  God  loses  his  testimony 
when  he  falls  into  temptation,  and  gets  away  from  the 
favor  of  his  Lord  ;  and  if  he  does  sometimes  stand  up  in 
meeting  and  talk  to  the  people  about  the  way  of  life  they 
laugh  at  him,  and  say,  "  You  don't  look  or  act  as  if  you  were 
a  child  of  God." 

Sin  took  this  young  man  away  from  home,  just  as  it 
takes  us  all  away  from  God.  Now  the  question  is,  How  did 
he  come  to  get  back  again  ? 

The  parable  tells  us,  that  after  awhile  he  came  to  him- 
self ;  that  is,  he  woke  up  to  the  fact  that  he  was  miserable 
because  he  was  away  from  his  father.  There  was  one 
thing  that  the  prodigal  never  lost : — he  lost  his  home  ;  he 
lost  his  money ;  he  lost  his  clothes  ;  he  lost  his  good 
name  ;  he  lost  his  respectability  ;  he  lost  his  testimony  ; 
but  he  never  lost  his  father's  love.  That  was  his  right 
through  it  all. 

I  find  a  good  many  men  who  are  living  in  sin,  who 
wonder  why  it  is  that  God  does  not  answer  their  prayers. 
I  will  tell  you  why  it  is.  God  loves  them  too  much  to 
answer  their  prayers  while  they  stay  away  from  him. 
Suppose  the  prodigal  son  had  written  his  father  a  letter, 
saying :  "  Father,  I  am  in  want  ;  please  send  me  some 
money."     Do  you  suppose  his  father  would  have  sent  it  ? 


130      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

If  he  bad  it  would  have  been  the  worst  thing  he  could 
have  done  for  the  boy.  The  proper  thing  for  the  prodigal 
to  do  was  to  go  home  ;  and  just  as  long  as  his  father 
kept  him  supplied  with  money  off  there  in  that  foreign 
country  there  was  no  reason  to  expect  him  to  come  back. 
If  you  have  gone  off  into  sin,  if  you  have  got  away  from 
God,  you  must  never  expect  him  to  feed  you,  and  clothe 
you,  and  to  supply  all  your  wants,  the  same  as  if  you  were 
in  his  house  sitting  down  with  him  and  the  other  chil- 
dren at  his  table.  What  God  wants  of  his  "  prodigal 
sons  "  is  for  them  to  come  home,  and  when  he  gets  them 
with  him  he  will  supply  their  wants  and  answer  their 
prayers. 

Well,  I  can  imagine  that  one  day  a  neighbor  from  his 
native  town  inquired  after  the  young  man,  and,  at  last, 
found  him  down  there  among  the  swine.  Of  course  he 
was  greatly  surprised. 

"  Why  don't  you  go  home  to  your  father  ? "  says  the 
neighbor. 

"  I  don't  know,"  says  the  prodigal.  "  I  am  not  quite 
sure  that  my  father  would  receive  me,  I  am  such  a  miser- 
able vagabond." 

"  Your  father  loves  you  as  much  as  ever,"  says  the 
neighbor. 

"  My  father  !  Did  you  see  him  ?  How  do  you  know 
he  loves  me  ?     Does  he  ever  speak  of  me  ?  " 

"  Ever  speak  of  you !  He  talks  of  you  by  day  and 
dreams  of  you  by  night.  I  was  over  at  his  house  the 
other  day,  and  when  I  told  him  I  was  coming  into  this  coun- 
try, the  old  man,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  begged  me  to  look 
up  his  lost  boy,  and  tell  him   to  come  right  home,  for 


Bible  Portraits    Prodigal  Son.  131 

his  father  was  breaking  his  heart  because  lie  stayed  so 
long  away." 

O,  if  there  is  a  poor  prodigal  here  to-night,  don't  go  on 
in  that  terrible  delusion,  that  your  heavenly  Father  has 
forgotten  you  !  There  isn't  one  of  God's  children  that  is 
ever  out  of  his  memory. 

One  of  the  chief  things  in  the  way  of  this  young  man 
was  his  pride.  I  suppose  he  would  have  gone  home  long 
before  he  did  if  it  hadn't  been  for  his  pride  ;  but  he  said 
to  himself,  "  I  came  away  with  abundance,  and  now  I  don't 
like  to  go  back  in  rags."  But  at  last  he  comes  to  himself, 
and  when  he  finds  out  that  his  father  loves  him,  and  wants 
to  have  him  back  again,  he  makes  up  his  mind  to  return. 

You  can  see  him  out  there  in  the  field,  as  he  gets  down 
on  his  knees  and  buries  his  face  in  his  hands,  like  Elijah 
upon  Mount  Carmel ;  saying  to  himself,  "  I  think  I  had 
better  go  home  ;  there  is  no  one  in  the  world  that  loves 
me  as  much  as  my  father.  I  am  surprised  that  he  is  not 
altogether  ashamed  of  me,  for  well  he  might  be.  But  I 
have  been  here  as  long  as  I  can  stand  it,  and  now  I  will 
arise  and  go  to  my  father  !  " 

Then  the  memories  of  the  old  home  come  back  to  him. 
He  calls  to  mind  his  childhood,  and  how  his  mother  used 
to  sing  to  him  and  pray  with  him,  and  how  kind  and  good 
his  father  was,  and  how  carefully  they  watched  over  him, 
and  kept  him  away  from  harm  and  evil.  He  thinks  of  the 
tears  of  his  mother,  and  remembers  the  day  they  buried 
her — I  cannot  help  thinking  that  he  had  lost  his  mother, 
for  there  isn't  any  thing  said  about  her  in  the  story — he 
remembers  the  morning  he  left  home,  and  how  his  old 
father  wept  over  him,  and  how   he  prayed  at  the  family 


132      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

altar  that  the  Lord  God  of  heaven  would  save  his  boy 
from  sin,  and  how  he  asked  the  Lord  to  send  his  angel  to 
watch  over  him.  Then  the  prodigal  opened  his  eyes  and 
looked  at  himself;  shoeless,  coatless,  hatless — just  cov- 
ered with  miserable  rags.  "Why,"  he  says  to  himself, 
•'  the  very  servants  in  my  father's  house  are  better  off 
than  I  ;  there  is  bread  enough  and  to  spare  in  my  father's 
house,  and  I  am  so  starved  that  my  bones  almost  prick 
through  my  skin:  /  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father 7" 
O,  that  thousands  here  to-night  would  say  with  this  prod- 
igal, "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father."  Nine  tenths  of 
the  battle  was  won  when  he  said  those  words. 

And  now  I  see  him  starting  on  his  way.  He  goes  to 
the  man  that  owns  the  pigs  and  tells  him  he  isn't  going 
to  take  care  of  them  any  longer  ;  hi  says  he  has  heard 
from  his  father,  who  is  a  great  and  good  man  up  there  in 
Judea,  and  he  is  going  back  to  him  ;  he  has  been  away 
too  long  already. 

There  is  joy  up  in  heaven  now.  I  see  the  guardian 
angel  who  watches  over  him  smiling  and  happy.  I  hear 
them  ringing  the  bells  of  heaven  because  the  lost  one  has 
come  to  himself  and  started  for  home. 

It  is  a  long  journey  and  a  hard  one,  but  he  never  looks 
behind  him  :  he  has  had  too  much  of  that  far  away  country 
already,  and  his  only  thought  is  of  his  home. 

I  can  imagine  his  feelings  as  he  comes  to  his  native  land. 
The  sky  is  brighter,  the  fields  are  greener,  than  the  fields 
and  skies  in  that  strange  country.  Sometimes,  as  he 
trudges  along  his  weary  way,  he  wonders  if  his  father  is 
still  living,  or  if  he  has  died  with  a  broken  heart  because 
of  his  wayward  son. 


Bible  Portraits — Prodigal  Son.  133 

At  last  he  comes  in  sight  of  the  old  mansion.  There 
is  the  old  man  out  on  the  flat  roof!  Many  a  time  he 
has  been  there  before.  Many  a  time  his  eye  has  been 
looking  in  the  direction  where  his  boy  went. 

He  sees  his  boy  afar  off.  He  cannot  tell  him  by  any 
thing  he  has  on;  but  love  is  keen.  He  starts  for  him. 
You  can  see  his  long  white  hair  floating  in  the  wind  as  he 
leaps  over  the  highway  ;  the  spirit  of  youth  has  come  back 
to  him.  The  servants  look  at  him  and  wonder  what  has 
come  over  him.  It  is  the  only  time  God  is  represented  as 
running,  and  that  is  to  meet  a  poor  returning  prodigal  soul. 

"  But  when  he  was  yet  a  great  way  off  his  father  saw 
him,  and  had  compassion"  on  him.  He  didn't  say,  "  He 
went  away  without  cause,  I  will  not  go  to  meet  him  ;"  but, 
rushing  out,  he  falls  upon  his  neck,  and  kisses  him  ;  and 
the  servants  come  running  out  to  see  what  is  the  matter. 

And  now  the  boy  begins  to  make  his  speech  :  "  Fa- 
ther, I  have  sinned  against  heaven,  and  in  thy  sight,  and 
am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son  " — and  just  as 
he  is  going  to  say,  "  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired  serv- 
ants," the  father  interrupts  him,  and  says  to  one  servant, 
"Go  bring  the  best  robe  and  put  it  on  him!"  and  to 
another,  "  Go  to  my  jewel-box  and  get  a  ring  and  put  it 
on  his  finger!"  and  to  another  one,  "Go  and  get  him  a 
pair  of  shoes!"  and  to  another,  "Go  and  kill  the  fatted 
calf !  "     What  joy  there  was  in  that  home  ! 

My  friend,  don't  you  know  that  since  that  time  this 
story  has  been  repeated  nearly  every  day — prodigals  com- 
ing home — and  I  never  yet  heard  of  any  one  but  what 
had  a  warm  welcome.  I  have  got  a  letter  here,  I  think  it 
is  one  of  the  last  letters  I  received  from  England.     The 


134      Moody:  his  Worms — Work — Workers. 

let'ter  goes  on  to  state  that  a  son  and  husband  had  left 
his  father's  house — left  his  wife  and  children — without 
a  cause  ;  and  now,  in  closing  up  the  letter,  the  sister  says  : 
"  He  need  not  fear  reproach,  only  love  awaits  him  at 
home."  That  man  may  be  here  to-night.  My  words  may 
reach  him,  and  if  so  I  beg  him  to  return  from  his  erring 
ways.  Listen  !  your  sister  says  that  no  reproach  or  harsh 
words  will  meet  you  on  your  return  home ;  only  love  will 
welcome  you  when  you  enter  the  door. 

The  father  of  the  prodigal  did  not  reproach  his  boy  : 
and  so  God  does  not  reproach  the  sinner.  He  knows 
what  human  nature  is — how  liable  a  mortal  is  to  go  astray. 
He  is  always  ready  to  forgive  and  take  you  back.  Christ 
says  he  will  forgive  ;  he  is  full  of  love,  and  compassion,  and 
tenderness.  If  a  poor  sinner  comes  and  confesses,  God 
is  willing  and  ready  to  forgive  him. 

There  was  a  lady  who  came  down  to  Liverpool  to  see 
us  privately;  it  was  just  before  we  were  about  to  leave 
the  city  to  go  up  to  London  to  preach.  With  tears  and 
sobs  she  told  a  very  pitiful  story.  It  was  this  :  She  said 
she  had  a  boy  nineteen  years  of  age  who  had  left  her. 
She  gave  me  his  photograph,  and  said,  "  You  stand  be- 
fore many  and  large  assemblies,  Mr.  Moody.  You  may 
see  my  dear  boy  before  you.  If  you  do  see  him,  tell  him 
to  come  back  to  me.  O,  implore  him  to  come  to  his  sor- 
rowing mother,  to  his  deserted  home  !  He  may  be  in 
trouble  ;  lie  may  be  suffering  ;  tell  him  for  his  loving 
mother  that  all  will  be  forgiven  and  forgotten,  and  that  he 
will  find  comfort  and  peace  at-home."  That  young  man 
may  be  in  this  hall  to-night.  If  he  is,  I  want  to  tell  him 
that  his  mother  loves  him  still. 


Bible  Portraits — Prodigal  Son.  135 

I  may  not  be  speaking  to  Arthur  to-night,  but  there 
may  be  a  great  many  other  Arthurs  who  have  left  their 
father's  house.  Let  me  entreat  you  to  go  home.  Send  a 
dispatch  that  you  are  coming,  and  start  at  once.  And  O, 
what  joy  there  will  be  in  those  sorrowful  homes  when 
these  long-lost  prodigals  return  !  By  and  by  you  may  learn 
that  your  mother  is  dead,  and  then  nothing  will  ever  com- 
fort you  for  having  broken  her  heart.  Wanderer,  arise  and 
go  to  thy  father,  who  loves  thee  ;  to  thy  mother,  who  weeps 
over  thee  ;  and  let  us  pray  that  multitudes  of  souls  wan- 
dering from  God  may  be  this  very  night  brought  home. 

Some  of  you  say,  "  I  don't  believe  God  will  forgive  a 
sinner,  or  take  him  back  all  at  once,  when  he  has  been 
disobeying  him  for  so  many  years." 

Wouldn't  you  do  it  ?  Come,  now,  if  you  were  to  find 
your  long-lost  prodigal  son  in  the  kitchen  when  you  got 
home — in  the  kitchen  because  he  didn't  feel  worthy  to  go 
into  the  parlor — wouldn't  you  forgive  him,  after  he  began 
to  see  what  a  sinner  he  had  been  ? 

I  can  tell  you  something  about  this  out  of  my  own  ex- 
perience. My  father  died  when  we  were  little  children. 
and  my  good  mother  had  a  hard  time  with  her  large  family 
of  boys  and  girls.  After  a  while  one  of  the  older  boys 
took  it  into  his  head  that  he  cowld  make  his  fortune  all 
alone  by  himself,  and  so  he  ran  away. 

For  years  and  years  we  heard  nothing  of  him.  Some- 
times it  seemed  as  if  my  mother's  heart  would  break.  "  O, 
if  I  could  only  know  he  was  dead,"  she  would  sometimes 
say,  "it  would  be  better  than  this.  Maybe  he  is  sick  and 
in  need,  or  maybe  he  has  fallen  in  with  wicked  men,  who 
will  make  him  as  bad  as  themselves." 


136      Moody :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

We  used  to  sit  around  the  fire  on  the  stormy  winter 
nights  and  listen  to  the  stories  that  mother  used  to  tell 
us  about  our  father,  about  what  he  said,  how  he  looked, 
how  he  was  kind  to  a  friend,  and  lost  a  great  deal  of 
money  by  him,  and  so  our  little  home  was  mortgaged,  and 
we  were  poor  ;  but  if  any  body  happened  to  speak  the 
name  of  that  lost  boy  a  great  silence  would  fall  upon 
us,  the  tears  would  come  into  my  mother's  eyes,  and 
then  we  would  all  steal  away  softly  to  bed,  whispering 
our  good-nights,  because  we  felt  that  the  mention  of  that 
name  was  like  a  sword  thrust  to  the  heart  of  our  mother. 

After  we  got  to  bed  we  would  lie  awake  and  listen  to 
the  roaring  of  the  wind  among  the  mountains,  thinking 
perhaps  he  was  out  in  the  cold  somewhere.  Maybe  he 
had  gone  to  sea,  and  while  we  were  snug  in  bed  he  might 
be  keeping  watch  on  the  wave-beaten  deck ;  perhaps 
climbing  the  mast  in  just  such  darkness  and  storm.  Now 
and  then,  between  the  gusts,  a  sound  would  be  heard  like 
the  wail  of  the  summer  wind  when  it  used  to  make  harp- 
strings  of  the  leaves  and  branches  of  the  great  maple-trees 
in  the  door-yard  :  now,  soft  and  gentle  ;  then,  rising  louder 
and  louder.  Mow  we  would  hold  our  breath  and  listen  ! 
Mother  was  sitting  up  to  pray  for  her  lost  boy.  Next 
morning,  perhaps,  she  would  send  one  of  us  down  to  the 
post-office  to  ask  for  a  letter — a  letter  from  him,  though 
she  never  said  so.     But  no  letter  ever  came. 

Long  years  afterward,  when  our  mother  was  growing 
old,  and  her  hair  was  turning  gray,  one  summer  afternoon 
a  dark  sunburned  man,  with  heavy  black  beard,  was  seen 
coming  in  at  the  gate. 

He  came  up  under  the  window  first,  and  looked  in  as  if 


Bible  Portraits — Prodigal  Sox.  137 

he  were  afraid  there  might  be  strangers  living  in  the 
house.  He  had  stopped  at  the  church-yard,  on  his  way 
through  the  village,  to  see  whether  there  were  two  graves 
instead  of  one  where  our  father  had  been  laid  so  many 
years  ago,  but  there  was  only  one  grave  there  :  surely  his 
mother  was  not  dead.  But  still  she  might  have  moved 
away.  Then  he  went  around  and  knocked  at  the  door, 
and  his  mother  came  to  open  it. 

Years  of  hardship  and  exposure  to  sun  and  storm  had 
made  him  strange  even  to  his  mother.  She  invited  him  to 
come  in,  but  he  did  not  move  or  speak  ;  he  stood  there 
humbly  and  penitently  ;  and,  as  a  sense  of  his  ingrati- 
tude began  to  overwhelm  him,  the  big  tears  found  their 
way  over  his  weather-beaten  cheeks.  By  those  tears  the 
mother  recognized  her  long-lost  son.  He  had  come  at 
last.  There  was  so  much  of  the  old  home  in  him  that 
he  couldn't  always  stay  away.  But  he  would  not  cross  its 
threshold  until  he  confessed  his  sin  against  it,  and  heard 
from  the  same  lips  which  had  prayed  so  often  and  so  long 
for  him  the  sweet  assurance  that  he  was  forgiven.  "  No, 
no,"  said  he,  "  I  cannot  come  in  until  you  forgive  me." 

Do  you  suppose  that  mother  kept  her  boy  out  there  in 
the  porch  until  he  had  gone  through  with  a  long  list  of 
apologies,  done  a  long  list  of  penances,  and  said  ever  so 
.  many  prayers  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  She  took  him  to  her 
heart  at  once ;  she  made  him  come  right  in  ;  she  forgave 
him  all,  and  rejoiced  over  his  coming  more  than  over  all 
the  other  children  that  hadn't  ran  away. 

And  that  is  just  the  way  God  forgives  all  the  prodigal 
souls  who  come  back  to  him.  O  wanderer,  come  home  ! 
come  home  ! 


u8      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


noah. 


Gil 


WANT  to  call  your  attention  to  Genesis  vii,  i : 
q£>  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  and  all 
thy  house  into  the  ark." 

We  meet  that  little  word  "come"  very  often  in  the 
Scriptures.  This  is  the  first  time  it  is  used  as  an  invita- 
tion ;  it  is  the  voice  of  grace,  mercy,  and  love. 

One  hundred  and  twenty  years  before  the  time  of  the 
text  Noah  received  the  most  awful  communication  that 
ever  came  from  heaven  to  earth.  God  told  him  that  he 
was  going  to  destroy  the  world  on  account  of  the  great 
increase  of  wickedness. 

Sin  came  into  the  world  full  grown  ;  the  first  man 
born  of  woman  was  a  murderer.  The  fact  is,  man  has 
always  been  bad  ;  there  is  nothing  good  in  him — he  is 
bad  by  nature.  We  don't  need  to  go  to  the  Bible  to 
prove  that.  You  can  look  around  you  and  find  plenty  of 
proofs.  Leave  man  alone  and  see  hew  quick  he  will  go  to 
ruin  !  See  how  the  nations  of  the  earth  have  gone  to  ruin 
when  they  have  been  left  alone.  It  was  their  own  sin 
that  drove  them  to  ruin,  and  it  is  just  the  same  with  indi- 
viduals. But  wickedness  had  increased  in  those  days  ;  if 
possible  men  were  worse  then  than  they  are  now ;  and 
so  God  told  Noah  to  build  an  ark  for  the  saving  of  his 
house,  for  he  was  about  to  destroy  the  world  by  a  flood : 
and  Noah,  having  faith  in  God,  obeyed  the  command. 


Bible  Portraits — Noah.  139 

Noah  was  instructed  to  warn  the  people  of  their  com- 
ing  doom  :  but  they  didn't  pay  any  attention  to  him. 
They  asked  where  was  the  sign  that  the  world  was  to 
be  destroyed,  and  scoffed,  just  as  men  now  do,  at  the 
idea.  When  Noah  was  told  to  build  the  ark  he  knew 
he  would  be  the  laughing-stock  of  the  city ;  but  the  old 
man  toiled  on  despite  the  jeers  of  his  fellows.  Thank 
God  !  there  was  one  man  in  that  age  who  dared  to  go 
against  public  sentiment  and  obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord. 
It  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world  ;  but  he  worked 
away  on  his  ark,  and  what  was  more,  he  got  his  children 
to  believe  and  help  him. 

While  the  ark  was  building  perhaps  the  people  came  to 
look  at  it,  and  considered  its  builder  a  lunatic  for  wasting 
his  time  and  money  on  this  apparently  useless  undertak- 
ing. Men  undoubtedly  talked  then  as  they  do  now.  You 
talk  with  the  scoffers  of  Chicago  and  you  will  see  that 
men  put  up  their  little  puny  reason  against  the  Almighty. 

I  have  heard  some  men  say  that  God  cannot  destroy 
this  world,  and  others  declare  that  there  is  no  God.  Un- 
doubtedly the  antediluvians  thought  in  the  same  way,  and 
some  would  probably  say,  if  there  was  a  God  he  couldn't 
destroy  the  world. 

I  can  imagine  that  business  was  brisk,  and  that  the 
warning  gave  them  little  trouble.  Their  saloons  and  bill- 
iard-halls were  full  every  night,  and  Noah  and  his  ark 
was  the  standing  joke  among  them.  One  hundred  years 
rolled  away,  and  yet  no  sign  of  a  flood.  There  were 
probably  astronomers  in  those  days,  who  tried  to  read  the 
heavens,  but  who  could  see  no  change  ;  there  were  geolo- 
gists, no  doubt,  who  dug  down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth 


140      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

to  bring  up  some  dead  carcass  to  prove  that  there  was 
no  God.  I  don't  know  but  some  of  them  believed  that 
men  were  descended  from  the  monkeys,  and  some  sub- 
scribed to  the  evolution  theory  we  hear  so  much  about. 
At  any  rate,  whatever  notions  they  had,  none  of  them  be- 
lieved in  the  coming  of  the  flood. 

There  were  Noah's  carpenters  ;  you  might  see  them,  a 
gang  of  men  going  into  the  saloons  of  a  night,  loafing  and 
drinking  and  making  sport  of  the  foolish  old  fellow,  as 
they  called  their  master,  and  excusing  themselves  for  work- 
ing for  him  on  the  ground  that  his  money  was  as  good 
as  any  one  else's.  Poor  Noah,  what  a  discouraging  time 
he  must  have  had  ! 

I  remember  once  when  I  felt  very  much  discouraged. 
I  suppose  I  got  under  the  juniper-tree,  where  Elijah  went. 
It  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  was  not  accomplishing  any  thing, 
and  all  my  work  went  for  nothing.  While  I  was  feeling 
very  glum  and  sorrowful,  one  of  the  Sunday-school  teach- 
ers came  in  and  asked  me  how  the  work  had  been  on  the 
Sunday  previous. 

"  O,  very  poor,  very  dull,"  said  I.  "  How  was  it  with 
you  ? " 

"  Very  good,  indeed,"  said  he  ;  "  we  had  a  very  profitable 
time  studying  the  character  of  Noah." 

I  thought  I  knew  all  about  Noah,  but  I  inquired  what 
new  thing  they  had  found  out  about  him. 

"  O,  nothing  new ;  but  just  study  him,  and  you  will 
find  very  much  that  will  help  you." 

So  when  he  was  gone  away  I  took  down  the  Bible  and 
began  to  study  Noah  ;  and  I  found,  among  other  things, 
that  he  had  preached  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  without 


Bible  Portrait-     X<  >ah.  141 

making  a  single  convert ;  but  still  he  kept  at  it,  preaching, 
and  working  on  the  ark,  and  holding  on  to  his  faith  for  a 
hundred  years  together. 

We  might  suppose  Noah  would  get  discouraged  after 
working  at  the  ark  a  hundred  years.  I  suppose  by  that 
time  some  of  the  timbers  had  got  rotten  that  were  put  in 
at  first,  and  had  to  be  replaced  with  new  ones.  Still  he 
worked  away.  God  had  said  a  flood  was  coming,  and  told 
him  to  prepare  the  ark,  and  it  didn't  make  any  difference 
about  the  time  ;  it  was  his  business  to  preach  and  to  build. 

That  day  I  went  down  to  the  Farwell  Hall  prayer- 
meeting,  and  a  man  rose  up  and  asked  us  to  pray  for  the 
salvation  of  his  soul. 

Well,  thought  I,  how  much  good  that  would  have  done 
Noah,  to  have  had  somebody  rise  for  prayers  ;  but  there 
wasn't  any  body  who  wanted  to  be  saved.  How  ashamed 
I  ought  to  be  to  complain  of  my  want  of  success  ! 

I  would  like  to  have  you  ask  yourselves  the  question 
now,  before  I  go  on  any  further— just  ask  yourselves  this 
question,  "  Am  I  in  the  ark  ? "  and  if  you  cannot  answer 
the  question — if  you  are  not  able  to  say  you  are  in  the  ark 
— wont  you  just  lift  up  your  hearts  in  prayer,  if  you  never 
prayed  before,  and  ask  the  Lord  to  give  you  light  on  the 
question  to-day  ? 

Now  if  these  scriptures  are  true,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
about  it,  it  is  an  awful  thing  for  a  man  or  woman  to  die 
outside  of  the  ark. 

One  hundred  and  twenty  years  before  God  had  come 
to  Noah  and  told  him  to  build  this  ark,  and  now  he  called 
him  into  it.  It  was  a  great  building.  If  you  should  put 
it  into  one  story  and  one  floor,  it  would  be  fifteen  hundred 


i42      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

feet  long  and  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  wide.  This  room 
is  about  two  hundred  feet  wide,  and  the  ark  was  seven 
times  as  long  as  this  building  and  a  great  deal  wider,  and 
about  sixteen  feet  high. 

Some  infidels  and  skeptics  have  tried  to  make  out  that 
the  ark  was  not  large  enough  to  hold  all  that  is  said  to 
have  gone  into  it.  but  there  is  no  trouble  about  that.  Un- 
doubtedly in  those  clays  they  thought  it  was  too  large. 
I  can  imagine  that  they  complained  of  Noah  for  building 
such  a  large  ark  when  there  was  nobody  who  agreed  with 
him,  and  none  to  go  into  it  but  his  own  family.  He  cer- 
tainly did  not  confer  with  flesh  and  blood,  or  he  would 
never  have  undertaken  to  build  the  ark  at  all.  The  people 
jeered  and  scoffed  at  him,  called  him  a  lunatic,  and  if  they 
had  had  insane  asylums  I  have  no  doubt  they  would  have 
shut  him  up  in  one  of  them. 

But  Noah,  in  the  face  of  all  obstacles,  still  goes  on  with 
the  work  which  has  been  assigned  him.  I  can  imagine 
that  after  one  hundred  years  have  rolled  away  the  people 
become  more  skeptical.  They  laugh,  and  mock,  and  say, 
"We  don't  believe  there. is  any  danger.  There  is  no  sign 
of  a  flood.  The  light  shines  the  same  ;  the  sun  is  as 
bright  as  it  has  been  the  last  thousand  years.  It  is  a  very 
strange  thing  if  this  world  is  to  be  destroyed,  for  we  are 
getting  on  so  well  and  are  so  prosperous."  And  so  they 
went  on  scoffing,  drinking,  marrying,  and  giving  in  mar- 
riage, feeling  perfectly  safe. 

Some  people  excuse  them  because  their  consciences 
were  not  touched  and  awakened.  So  it  may  be  said  of 
you :  but  that  only  made  their  fate  worse.  It  is  a  good 
deal  better  for  you  to  heed  the  voice  of  God. 


Bible  Portraits-— Noah.  143 

Well,  twenty  years  more  have  rolled  away,  and  that  is 
the  time  God  has  set.  The  people  had  been  looking  into 
the  heavens  but  could  see  no  sign.  The  geologists  scoffed, 
and  the  astronomers  predicted  fine  weather.  The  philoso- 
phers, and  the  astrologers,  and  the  scientific  men,  and  the 
wise  men,  and  the  great  men,  all  united  to  testify  that 
Noah  was  wrong — that  God  could  not  drown  the  world. 
Just  as  some  men  say  now  that  God  cannot  burn  the 
world.  But  God,  who  created  this  world  out  of  nothing, 
certainly  can  destroy  it.  Don't  flatter  yourselves,  my 
friends,  that  God  cannot  destroy  the  world.  Don't  go  on 
thinking  that  God  isn't  going  to  call  this  world  to  judg- 
ment. He  is  a  God  of  mercy,  but  there  is  one  thing  we 
must  keep  in  mind,  he  is  also  a  God  of  justice.  We  are 
taught  that  if  a  man  wont  have  grace  he  shall  have  judg- 
ment. You  can  have  grace,  mercy,  love,  or  you  can  have 
judgment  and  the  curse  of  God. 

I  can  imagine  that  Noah's  contract  is  finished,  and 
every  thing  is  ready.  It  is  spring,  and  all  the  people 
are  busy  planting  their  crops.  But  Noah  plants  nothing. 
"  Look,"  they  say,  "  he  plants  nothing  ;  he  will  surely 
want."     They  are  very  much  startled  at  his  course. 

At  length  God  tells  Noah  to  occupy  the  ark  he  had  built. 
When  he  moves  in  they  all  say,  "  Why  don't  he  wait  till 
a  storm  comes?  The  sun  is  shining  brightly,  without  any 
sign  of  rain — the  flocks  and  herds  are  grazing  on  the  hill- 
sides— and  every  thing  moves  on  as  it 'has  for  the  last  two 
thousand  years.  But  Noah  goes  into  the  ark.  The  people 
who  had  ridiculed  the  old  man  are  alarmed  as  they  see 
the  beasts  coming  up  from  the  fields  and  forests  :  the 
tiger  out  of  its  den,  and  the  boar  out  of   its  cave,  and  the 


144      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

lion  and  the  lamb  going  in  together.  All  kinds  of  birds 
are  flying  to  the  ark,  and  even  the  little  insects  are  creep- 
ing toward  it. 

After  they  had  all  gone  in,  we  are  told  that  God  shut 
the  door ;  and  in  another  place  in  the  Scriptures,  we  are 
told  that  what  God  shuts  no  man  opens.  Still  the  flood 
didn't  come.  There  were  seven  days  grace,  as  it  were. 
If  those  people  had  cried  for  mercy  then  I  believe  God 
would  have  saved  them.  They  didn't  believe  that  he 
would  destroy  the  world — but  did  that  change  the  decrees 
of  Heaven  ? 

At  last  the  storm  began,  and  we  are  told  that  the  fount- 
ains of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up.  Not  only  did  the 
waters  come  out  of  the  heavens  and  pour  upon  them,  but 
it  seems  that  they  burst  up  from  the  earth  ;  and  the  ocean 
broke  from  its  banks.  After  the  storm  had  raged  for  per- 
haps forty-eight  hours  the  scoffers  began  to  change  their 
tune.  They  pray  to  God  for  mercy.  They  go  to  the  door 
of  the  ark  and  cry,  "  Noah,  let  us  in  !  Noah,  let  us  in  ! " 
But  there  comes  a  voice  from  within,  "  I  cannot ;  God  has 
shut  the  door."  So,  my  friends,  the  door  that  shuts  God's 
people  in  will  shut  the  scoffer  out. 

So,  to-day,  God  has  provided  an  ark  for  every  soul  in 
this  house.  He  says  he  doesn't  want  any  of  us  to  per- 
ish ;  he  doesn't  want  any  of  us  to  die  outside  of  the  ark  ; 
he  wants  us  all  to  come  to  Christ.  O  hear  his  loving  call 
to-day,  "  Come  thou  and  all  thy  house  into  the  ark  !  " 

O  you  who  are  parents — I  am  speaking  to  a  good  many 
parents  here  to-day — come  you  in  first.  Noah  went  in 
first,  and  his  wife  and  children  followed  him.  He  had 
lived  such  a  life  as  to  give  his  children  confidence  in  him. 


Bible  Portraits — Noah.  145 

If  you,  parents,  do  not  go  into  the  ark  yourselves,  how 
can  you  expect  your  children  to  go  in  ?  God  calls  you 
to-day.     Will  you  come  ? 

But  one  more  thought.  Men  cavil  now  and  say,  "We 
don't  believe  in  the  deluge  at  all ;  we  believe  in  the  teach- 
ings of  the  New  Testament,  but  not  in  the  Old.  We  can- 
not believe  that  God  would  destroy  so  many  people, at 
once."  My  dear  friends,  do  you  know  that  every  thirty 
years  more  people  die  now  than  were  destroyed  then  ? 
The  deluge  was  simply  their  destruction  a  few  years 
sooner — that  was  all.  Not  only  that,  but  the  Son  of  God 
has  said,  "As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,  so  shall  it  be 
also  in  the  days  of  the  Son  of  man."  Don't  let  the  devil 
make  you  think  God  is  not  coming  to  destroy  the  world 
by  fire,  for  he  is  going  to  do  it.  The  first  two  or  three 
hours  of  the  Chicago  fire  men  were  on  the  streets  laugh- 
ing, and  saying  it  would  soon  be  over.  But  the  fire  con- 
tinued to  rage  until  nearly  the  whole  city  was  destroyed, 
and  their  laughing  was  soon  turned  to  weeping.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  on  that  memorable  night  I  got  a  glimpse  of 
what  the  judgment-day  will  be. 

What  is  your  refuge  ?  Is  it  some  false  hope  ?  May 
the  God  of  mercy  sweep  it  away  to-day  !  Thank  God,  we 
have  not  to  wait  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  for  the  build- 
ing of  the  ark !  God  has  brought  it  right  to  the  door  of 
every  man's  heart.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  hide  in  Jesus, 
and  we  are  saved  for  time  and  eternity. 
7 


146      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 


ABRAHAM. 

Mr.  Moody  commenced  his  word-picture  of  the  Patriarch  Abra- 
ham with  these  words  : — 

^B7E  find  that  the  Lord  had  called  Abraham  out  of 
^r  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  to  leave  all  his  idols  and  his 
kindred,  and  to  go  to  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and  in  the 
ninth  chapter  of  Genesis  we  are  told  that  he  went  forth 
to  go  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  but  when  he  had  got 
about  half  way  he  stopped  at  Haran ;  and  it  seems  that 
he  stayed  there  about  five  years. 

That  is  just  the  way  with  a  great  many  people.  They 
are  called  of  God  to  go  out  of  their  sins  and  go  into  the 
Promised  Land.  They  make  a  start,  and  get  about  half 
way,  and  there  they  stop.  O  how  many  people  there  are 
who  are  dwelling  at  Haran  instead  of  pushing  on  to 
Canaan  ! 

Now,  how  did  God  get  Abraham  out  of  Haran?  If 
you  will  turn  to  the  thirty-second  verse  of  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Genesis  you  will  find  out.  "  And  the  days  of 
Terah  [Abraham's  father]  were  two  hundred  and  five 
years:  and  Terah  died  in  Haran."  That  is  just  the  way 
God  has  to  do  with  a  great  many  other  people  besides 
Abraham.  They  are  settled  in  the  wrong  place  ;  they 
are  doing  the  wrong  work ;  they  are  not  pushing  on  to 
the  land  the  Lord  has  said  he  will  give  them  for  an  in- 
heritance, and,  in  order  to  start  them  on  the  way  to 
Canaan,  God  is  obliged   to  send  them  some  affliction. 


Bible  Portraits— Abraham.  147 

The  very  thing  we  think  is  the  greatest  calamity  is  just 
what  God  uses  to  awaken  us  and  send  us  forward  on  the 
way  of  our  duty. 

I  have  been  thinking  this  morning  about  this  city  of 
Chicago  for  the  past  sixteen  years.  We  were  getting 
rich  and  looking  for  great  things,  and  the  war  came  on. 
That  woke  up  the  Church  a  good  deal,  but  after  it  was 
over  they  settled  clown  at  Haran  again.  Then  came  the 
Chicago  fire;  and  I  said  to  myself,  Surely  this  will  bring 
the  Church  out  of  Haran — but  it  didn't.  We  were  crying 
unto  God  for  awhile,  but  presently  the  city  was  as  much 
given  up  to  money-making  as  ever.  It  kept  on  getting 
worse  and  worse ;  opened  the  theaters  on  Sunday,  and 
then  along  came  the  panic,  and  it  isn't  over  yet. 

There  are  a  great  many  men  and  women  out  of  work 
these  hard  times,  and  people  say,  "  What  is  to  become 
of  these  gamblers,  and  rumsellers,  and  fallen  women, 
who  come  to  Christ  and  give  up  their  old  ways  of  life  ?  " 
Some  of  them  say,  "  If  I  could  only  see  how  to  live,  I 
would  forsake  my  sins  and  turn  to  God."  Why,  my 
friends,  it  don't  take  any  faith  at  all  if  we  can  see  how 
the  thing  is  coming  out.  You  must  be  willing  to  leave 
every  thing  to  God  and  follow  him  where  you  can't  see, 
and  he  will  deliver  you  soul  and  body.  But  he  will  not 
have  a  man  whom  he  can't  try,  or  one  that  will  not  walk 
by  faith. 

Abraham  found  Canaan  full  of  kings  and  cities,  and  he 
didn't  know  how  he  was  ever  to  get  possession  of  the 
land  ;  but  he  took  it  by  faith.  He  was  seventy-five  years 
old  when  he  got  there,  and  God  kept  him  there  twenty- 
five  years  more  before  he  gave  him  the  promised  son. 


148      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Yet  he  staggered  not  through  unbelief;  he  believed  the 
promise  of  God,  who  had  told  him  he  would  make  his 
seed  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multitude,  and  as  the  sand 
which  is  on  the  sea-shore.  Stars  stand  for  heavenly  peo- 
ple— sands  for  earthly  people ;  so  the  promise  included 
both  this  world  and  the  next. 

We  do  not  find  that  Abraham  had  any  altar  in  Haran, 
but  when  he  got  to  Bethel  he  built  an  altar  the  very  first 
thing.  You  remember  that  when  Lot  and  some  other 
Sodomites  were  taken  captive  Abraham  sent  out  a  little 
army  of  his  servants  and  retook  them,  and  also  the  spoil 
which  they  had  carried  off,  and  brought  them  and  it  back 
to  the  king  of  Sodom,  who  said  to  him,  "  Give  me  the 
persons,  and  take  the  goods  to  thyself."  But  Abraham 
had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Melchizedek,  the  king  of 
Salem,  and  priest  of  the  most  high  God.  And  now  we 
hear  him  saying,  "  I  will  not  take  from  a  thread  even  to 
a  shoe  latchet  .  .  .  lest  thou  shouldest  say,  I  have  made 
Abraham  rich." 

Ah,  he  had  gotten  the  world  under  his  feet.  He  had 
met  the  King  of  Peace,  and  with  his  blessing  he  was  rich 
enough  and  strong  enough,  without  any  help  from  Sodom. 

The  very  next  thing,  we  find  God  saying  to  him  :  "  Fear 
not,  Abraham  :  I  am  thy  shield,  and  thy  exceeding  great 
reward."  And  Abraham  said,  "What  wilt  thou  give 
me,  seeing  I  go  childless?"  Then  God  renewed  the 
covenant  with  him,  and  he  believed  God,  and  we  are  told 
it  was  counted  unto  him  for  righteousness.  As  Paul  has 
it  in  the  Corinthians,  in  that  little  parenthesis — "  for  we 
walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight,"— that  is  the  way  Abra- 
ham walked,  and  that  is  the  way  for  us  to  walk.     Let 


Bible  Portraits— Abraham.  149 

us    not   be  troubled  about  how  he  is  going  to  take  care 
of  us. 

Some  of  these  fallen  women  say:  "Just  give  us  a 
place  where  we  can  get  our  living  first,  and  then  we  will 
come  to  Christ."  I  wouldn't  turn  my  hand  over  to  get 
a  thousand  of  them  that  way ;  they  would  all  go  back 
again.  Let  them  first  get  out  of  Haran  ;  out  of  Babylon  ; 
out  of  Sodom  ;  let  them  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  his  righteousness,  and  then  all  other  things  will  be 
added  unto  them. 

There  was  a  young  man  here  some  years  ago  whom  I 
was  trying  to  lead  to  Christ.  He  was  out  of  work,  and  I 
had  found  a  situation  for  him,  though  I  didn't  let  him 
know  it,  for  he  was  saying  to  me  :  "  Just  let  me  get  a 
place  to  work,  and  then  I'll  attend  to  religion."  "  No," 
said  I,  "  that  is  the  wrong  place  to  begin.  Seek  the  king- 
dom of  God  first,  and  get  the  work  afterward,"  and  I 
held  him  to  it,  and  didn't  let  him  know  I  had  a  place 
for  him  till  after  he  had  given  his  heart  to  Christ. 

But  let  us  get  back  to  Abraham.  He  is  an  old  man 
now,  and  the  Lord  is  going  to  put  his  faith  to  one  last 
trial. 

And  the  Lord  said,  "  Take  now  thy  son,  thine  only 
son  Isaac,  whom  thou  lovest,  and  get  thee  into  the  land 
of  Moriah  ;  and  offer  him  there  for  a  burnt-offering  upon 
one  of  the  mountains  which  I  will  tell  thee  of." 

That  must  have  been  a  terrible  time  for  Abraham. 
Probably  he  lay  awake  most  of  the  night,  thinking  of  this 
strange  command  of  God  ;  but  I  am  sure  he  didn't  tell  his 
wife  any  thing  about  it  for  fear  she  would  try  to  make  him 
disobey.     God  had  given  him  a  son  in  his  old  age.  and 


150       Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

now  it  seems  as  if  he  were  going  to  take  him  away  again. 
But  then  Abraham  knew  that  God  was  wiser  than  he, 
and  if  he  took  away  his  son  he  was  just  as  able  to  give 
him  another.  So  he  does  not  delay,  but  rises  up  early 
in  the  morning,  and  saddles  his  ass,  and  takes  two  young 
men  with  him,  and  Isaac  his  son,  and  some  wood  for  a 
burnt- offering,  and  starts  on  his  journey. 

His  wife  wants  to  know  where  he  is  going.  He  tells 
her  he  is  going  away  to  a  mountain  to  offer  up  sacrifice 
to  God,  but  he  doesn't  tell  her  that  he  is  going  to  offer 
up  Isaac  as  that  sacrifice. 

I  can  see  them  going  along  together — the  old  man 
and  his  son.  They  are  very  silent,  and  Isaac  imagines 
there  is  something  weighing  heavy  on  his  father's  mind. 
They  travel  all  that  day,  and  lie  down  to  sleep  at 
night,  but  I  fancy  Abraham  doesn't  sleep  much.  He 
thinks  of  his  son  who  was  given  him  in  his  old  age,  and 
of  the  strange  journey  he  is  making  to  offer  up  this  sacri- 
fice. We  don't  hear  that  he  prayed  to  the  Lord  to  spare 
Isaac.     Probably  he  left  that  all  with  the  Lord. 

On  the  third  day  Abraham  lifts  up  his  eyes  and  sees 
the  place  afar  off,  and  when  they  come  near,  he  says  to 
the  servants,  "  Abide  ye  here  with  the  ass ;  and  I  and 
the  lad  will  go  yonder  and  worship,  and  come  again  to 
you."  So  Abraham  takes  the  wood  and  puts  it  on  the 
back  of  his  son,  and  takes  the  fire  and  the  knife,  and 
they  go  up  the  mountain  together. 

The'  young  man  doesn't  know  what  to  make  of  it. 
Here  are  all  the  preparations  for  a  burnt-offering  except 
the  offering  itself.  "Where  is  the  lamb?"  says  Isaac; 
and  Abraham  answers,  "  My  son,  God  will  provide  him- 


Bible  Portraits— Abraham.  151 

self  a  lamb."  So  they  come  together  to  the  top  of  the 
mountain,  and  the  old  man,  with  trembling  hands,  builds 
an  altar,  and  takes  the  wood,  and  puts  it  in  order  on 
the  top  of  it. 

When  every  thing  is  ready,  he  says  to  his  son,  "  Isaac, 
sit  down  here  a  little  while,  I  want  to  talk  with  you." 
So  they  sit  down  together,  and  the  old  man,  his  voice 
trembling  with  emotion,  tells  his  son  how  the  Lord 
called  him  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  a  great  many 
years  ago,  when  he  was  a  heathen  and  an  idolater,  and 
promised  to  make  him  the  father  of  a  great  nation.  He 
tells  Isaac  also  about  his  life — how  the  Lord  has  sent  his 
angels  to  him,  and  how  they  promised  that  he  should 
have  a  son  in  his  old  age.  "  And  now,  Isaac,  it  seems 
strange — I  cannot  understand  it — but  three  nights  ago 
the  Lord  stood  by  me,  and  told  me  to  bring  you  to  the 
top  of  this  mountain  and  offer  you  up  as  a  burnt-offer- 
ing. I  don't  know  what  Jehovah  means.  But  there  is 
nothing  else  to  do  but  to  obey.  You  must  suffer,  and  I 
must  sacrifice  you.  It  is  a  great  deal  harder  for  me,  Isaac, 
than  it  will  be  for  you." 

The  young  man  is  entirely  overwhelmed,  but  he 
doesn't  make  any  resistance — doesn't  run  away.  He  just 
gives  himself  up  to  God  according  to  the  word  of  his  fa- 
ther, and  takes  his  place  on  the  top  of  the  wood  that  has 
been  placed  upon  the  altar,  just  as  he  has  seen  the  sacri- 
fice laid  to  be  offered  to  Jehovah. 

And  now  the  old  man  takes  the  knife,  and  raises  it 
high  in  the  air,  and,  looking  up  with  one  heart-broken 
cry  to  God,  he  is  about  to  plunge  it  into  the  heart  of  his 
son,  when  he  hears  a  voice 


152      Moody:  his  Works— Work — Workers. 

"  Abraham  !  Abraham !  lay  not  thine  hand  upon  the 
lad,"  says  the  Lord,  "  for  now  I  know  that  thou  fearest 
God,  seeing  thou  hast  not  withheld  thy  son,  thine  only 
son,  from  me." 

O  !  my  friends,  God  was  a  great  deal  more  tender  with 
Abraham  than  he  was  with  himself.  When  his  own 
Son  was  dying  upon  a  cross  on  that  very  same  mount- 
ain he  didn't  send  a  victim  to  take  his  place,  but  left 
him  there  to  die,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might 
redeem  us  and  bring  us  back  to  God. 

What  about  your  faith,  my  friend  ?  Abraham  is  called 
the  father  of  the  faithful :  are  you  a  child  of  Abraham  ? 
Do  you  believe  in  God  so  much  that  you  are  willing  to 
obey? 


Bible  Portraits— Elijah.  153 


ELIJAH. 

"Did  you  ever  see  such  a  sight?"  said  a  gentleman  on  the  plat- 
form of  the  great  Tabernacle,  pointing  to  the  crowd  of  young  men 
which  entirely  filled  the  first  floor.  A  severe  snow-s*torm  was  rag- 
ing, but  this  did  not  prevent  the  attendance  of  an  immense  congrega- 
tion of  young  men,  to  whom  Mr.  Moody  had  announced  a  special 
sermon.  There  were  many  ladies  in  the  galleries,  and  on  the  plat- 
form a  large  number  of  the  leading  business  men  of  Chicago  with 
their  families.  Whenever  Mr.  Moody  announces  a  sermon  to  young 
men  it  is  well  understood  that  he  is  to  speak  to  a  class  of  people  with 
whose  needs  he  is  intimately  acquainted,  hence  the  desire  on  the  part 
of  all  classes  to  hear  the  good  advice  he  gives  them. 

Unlike  many  who  preach  to  the  young,  Mr.  Moody  does  not  for- 
get the  time  when  he  was  a  young  man  himself.  It  is  partly  on  this 
account,  and  part'y  on  account  of  the  manly,  Christian  wisdom  which 
has  accumulated  in  him,  that  the  young  men  respond  by  thousands 
to  his  invitation  to  come  and  hear  what  he  has  to  say.  On  this  oc- 
casion he  chose  for  his  text  these  words  from  II.  Kings  xviii,  21  : 
"  And  Elijah  came  unto  all  the  people,  and  said,  How  long  halt  ye 
between  two  opinions?  if  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  him  ;  but  if  Baal, 
then  follow  him." 

.^LEXANDER  THE  GREAT  was  once  asked  how 
^X^:  he  had  been  able  to  conquer  the  world.  "By  not 
delaying,"  was  his  reply. 

Now,  here  is  a  matter  which  I  want  you  all  to  decide 
without  delay  ;  "  If  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  him."  A  man 
that  is  undecided  cannot  have  any  peace.  He  may  intend 
some  day  to  settle  the  question  of  his  duty  to  God,  and  to 
make  his  arrangements  to  reach  heaven  at  last,  but  Satan 
is  all  the  while  tempting  him  to  put  it  oft".  There  is  noth- 
ing that  Satan  bates  in  a  man  worse  than  prompt  decision. 


154      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

What  was  it  that  made  Moses  so  great  ?  It  was,  that  he 
decided  for  God.  What  was  it  that  made  Daniel  not  only 
a  prince  in  Babylon,  but  a  prince  of  God's  people  for  all 
time  ?  It  was  because  he  "  purposed  in  his  heart  to  serve 
his  God."  What  made  the  poor  prodigal  son  so  happy  ? 
It  was  his  decision,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 

O  how  many  a  man  is  lost  for  want  of  decision  !  How 
was  it  with  Agrippa  ?  He  hesitated  :  "  Almost  thou  per- 
suadest  me  to  be  a  Christian."  Look  at  Pilate — lost  for 
want  of  moral  courage  and  decision  ;  and  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  men  and  women  have  gone  down  to  the 
same  ruin  for  want  of  prompt  decision  in  matters  of  duty 
to  God. 

Now,  young  man,  if  there  is  any  thing  in  this  religion 
there  is  every  thing  in  it.  If  it  is  false  let  us  find  it  out, 
and  the  sooner  the  better.  If  Christianity  is  a  myth,  let 
us  denounce  it ;  if  it  is  a  divine  revelation,  let  us  accept  it. 
If  the  Bible  is  not  true,  let  us  burn  it.  What  is  the  use  of 
.publishing  so  many  millions  of  copies,  and  sending  them 
out  over  the  wide  world  ?  If  Christianity  is  a  sham,  then 
let  us  build  its  tomb  and  shout  over  it,  "There  is  no 
heaven,  there  is  no  hell !  man  dies  like  the  dog  ! "  But  if 
the  Bible  is  true,  let  us  take  our  stand  upon  it  ;  if  Christ 
is  the  son  of  God,  let  us  believe  on  him. 

If  bad  men  had  written  this  Bible  they  wouldn't  have 
said  so  much  about  God  ;  and  if  good  men  wrote  it  with- 
out any  help  from  God  they  wouldn't  have  ventured  to 
tell  a  lie,  and  to  claim  that  God  inspired  them.  So,  then, 
the  question  comes  to  you  which  Elijah  put  to  those  men 
on  Mount  Carmel. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  surroundings  of  this  case. 


Bible  Portraits — Elijah.  155 

King  Ahab  had  forsaken  the  God  of  Israel,  and  all  the 
court  people  and  "  upper  ten  "  had  followed  his  example. 
But  there  was  an  old  prophet  out  in  the  mountains  to 
whom  God  said  :  "  Go  to  Ahab,  and  tell  him  the  heavens 
shall  be  shut  up,  and  there  shall  be  no  rain." 

Away  he  goes  to  the  wicked  king:  bursts  in  upon  him 
like  a  clap  of  thunder,  gives  his  message,  and  hurries  away. 

I  suppose  Ahab  laughed  at  the  old  prophet.  "  What  ! 
no  more  rain  ?     Why,  the  fellow  must  be  crazy  !  " 

Pretty  soon  the  weather  gets  very  dry.  The  earth  is 
parched,  and  begins  to  crack  open.  The  rivers  have  but 
little  water  in  them,  and  the  brooks  dry  up  altogether. 
The  trees  die  ;  all  the  grass  perishes,  and  the  cattle  die, 
too.  Famine  ;  starvation  ;  death  !  If  rain  doesn't  come 
pretty  soon  there  wont  be  a  live  man  or  woman  left  in 
all  the  kingdom. 

One  day  the  king  is  talking  with  the  prophet  Obadiah. 
You  see  he  did  have  one  good  man  near  him,  along  with 
all  the  prophets  of  the  false  gods.  Almost  every  one 
likes  to  have  some  good  man  within  reach,  even  if  he  is 
ever  so  bad  himself.  He  may  be  wanted  in  a  hurry  some 
time. 

"See  here,  Obadiah,"  says  King  Ahab,  "you  go  one 
way  and  I'll  go  another,  and  we'll  see  if  we  can't  find  some 
water  somewhere." 

So  Obadiah  started  off  to  find  water,  but  he  hadn't  got 
a  great  way  before  Elijah  bursts  out  upon  him. 

"  O,  Elijah  !  is  that  you  ?  Ahab  has  been  hunting  for 
you  every -where,  and  couldn't  find  you." 

"  Yes  ;  I'm  here,"  says  Elijah.  "  You  go  and  tell  Ahab 
I  want  to  see  him." 


156      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

"  I  dare  not  do  that,"  says  Obadiah  ;  "  for  just  as  soon 
as  I  tell  him  you  are  here  the  Spirit  will  catch  you  away 
and  take  you  oft"  somewhere  else  ;  and  then  the  king  will 
be  very  angry,  and  maybe  he'll  kill  me." 

"  No,"  says  Elijah.  "  As  the  Lord  liveth,  I  will  meet 
Ahab  face  to  face  this  day." 

So  Obadiah  hurries  off  to  find  Ahab,  and  tells  him  he 
has  seen  the  prophet. 

"What!  Elijah?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Why  didn't  you  bring  him  along  ? " 

"  He  wouldn't  come.     He  says  you  must  come  to  him." 

Ahab  wasn't  used  to  have  people  talk  that  way  to  him  ; 
but  he  was  anxious  to  see  the  prophet,  so  he  went. 

When  he  sees  him  he  is  very  angry,  and  cries,  "  Art 
thou  he  that  troubleth  Israel  ? " 

"  Not  at  all,"  says  Elijah.  "You  are  the  man  that  is 
troubling  Israel — going  off  after  Baal,  and  leading  ever  so 
many  of  the  people  with  you.  Now,  we  have  had  enough 
of  this  sort  of  thing.  Some  are  praying  to  Jehovah,  and 
some  are  praying  to  Baal,  and  we  must  have  this  ques- 
tion settled.  You  just  bring  all  your  prophets  and  all 
the  priests  of  Baal  up  to  Mount  Carmel,  and  I  also  will 
come.  We  will  make  us  each  an  altar,  and  offer  sacrifice 
on  it ;  and  the  God  that  answereth  by  fire  let  him  be 
God." 

"  Agreed,"  says  Ahab  ;  and  off  he  goes  to  tell  his  priests 
to  get  ready  for  the  trial. 

I  fancy  that  was  a  great  day  when  that  question  was 
to  be  decided.  All  the  places  of  business  were  closed, 
and  every  body  started  for  Mount  Carmel.     There  were 


Bible  Portraits— Elijah.  157 

eight  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  prophets  and  priests  of 
Baal  altogether.  I  fancy  I  can  see  them  going  up  in  a 
grand  procession,  with  the  king  in  his  chariot  at  their 
head. 

"  Fine-looking  men,  aint  they  ? "  says  one  man  to  an- 
other as  they  go  by.  "  They'll  be  able  to  do  great  things 
up  there  on  the  mountain." 

But  there  Elijah  marched,  all  alone  :  a  rough  man,  clad 
in  the  skins  of  beasts,  with  a  staff  in  his  hand.  No  ban- 
ners, no  procession,  no  great  men  in  his  train  !  But  the 
man  who  could  hold  the  keys  of  heaven  .for  three  years 
and  six  months  wasn't  afraid  to  be  alone. 

Then  says  Elijah  to  the  people,  "How  long  halt  ye 
between  two  opinions  ?  Let  the  priests  of  Baal  build 
them  an  altar  and  offer  sacrifice,  but  put  no  fire  under  ; 
and  I  will  do  the  same :  and  the  God  that  answereth  by 
fire  let  him  be  God."  So  the  priests  of  Baal  built  their 
altar,  and  offered  their  sacrifice. 

I  am  sure,  if  God  hadn't  held  him  back,  Satan  would 
have  brought  up  a  little  spark  out  of  hell  to  set  that  sacri- 
fice on  fire.     But  God  wouldn't  let  him. 

Then  the  priests  begin  to  pray :  "  O  Baal,  hear  us  ! 
O  Baal,  hear  us  !  " 

Elijah  might  have  said  :  "  Why  haven't  you  prayed  to 
Baal  for  water  this  dry  weather  ?  You  might  just  as  well 
ask  him  for  water  as  for  fire." 

After  a  long  time  they  begin  to  get  hoarse. 

"  You  must  pray  louder  than  that  if  you  expect  Baal  to 
hear  you,"  says  the  old  prophet.  "  Maybe  he  is  asleep  : 
pray  louder,  so  as  to  wake  him  up." 

Poor  fellows  !  they  haven't  any  voice  left ;  so  they  begin 


158      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

to  pray  in  blood.  They  cut  themselves  with  knives,  and 
lift  their  streaming  hands  and  arms  to  Baal.  But  no  fire 
comes  down. 

It  is  getting  toward  sundown.  The  prophet  of  the  Lord 
builds  an  altar.  Mind,  he  doesn't  have  any  thing  to  do 
with  the  altar  of  Baal,  but  builds  an  entirely  different  one, 
on  the  ruins  of  the  altar  of  Jehovah  which  had  been  brok- 
en down.  "We  wont  have  any  body  saying  there  is  any 
trick  about  this  thing,"  says  the  prophet.  So  they  bring 
twelve  barrels  of  water  and  pour  over  the  altar.  I  don't 
know  how  they  managed  to  get  so  much  water ;  but  they 
did  it. 

Then  Elijah  prays:  "  Lord  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
of  Israel,  let  it  be  known  this  day  that  thou  art  God  in 
Israel."  He  didn't  have  to  pray  very  long.  God  heard 
him  at  once,  and  dozvu  came  the  fire !  It  burnt  up  the 
sacrifice,  burnt  up  the  wood,  licked  up  the  water,  and  burnt 
up  the  very  stones  of  the  altar. 

Nobody  could  halt  any  longer.  The  people  cried,  "  The 
Lord,  he  is  the  God  ;  the  Lord,  he  is  the  God."  . 

O,  young  man,  I'll  take  you  to  another  mountain,  Mount 
Calvary.  It  is  more  wonderful  than  Carmel.  The  story  of 
the  cross  is  the  great  wonder  of  the  world. 

A  man  once  tried  to  sell  me  a  book  of  wonders.  I 
looked  it  over,  and  then  asked  him  if  it  had  any  thing 
about  the  cross  of  Calvary  in  it.     He  said,  "  No." 

"  What,"  said  I,  "  a  book  of  wonders,  and  the  greatest  of 
all  wonders  left  out !  " 

There  the  sun  refused  to  shine,  the  rocks  were  rent,  the 
earth  shook,  the  graves  were  opened,  and  the  dead  came 
forth.      How  wonderfu'  ! 


Bible  Portraits — Elijah.  159 

So  now  there  are  wonders  here.  The  Son  of  God 
stoops  down  and  gives  these  inquirers  victory ;  drunkards 
are  converted,  and  publicans  and  harlots  are  coming  into 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

Now  hundreds  and  thousands  are  convinced,  but  they 
are  holding  on  to  some  darling  sin.  A  man  could  not  de- 
cide to  give  his  heart  to  Christ  the  other  day  because  he 
had  a  bet.  Now,  suppose  that  man  dies,  what  will  become 
of  his  soul  ? 

O  why  not  come  out  now  ?  Why  not  come  out  to- 
night ?    Just  ask  yourselves  :  "  What  stands  in  the  way  ?  " 

"  O,"  you  say,  "  I  can't  stand  those  jeers."  But  can't  you 
set  your  face  like  a  flint  against  Satan  and  decide  to- 
night ?  You  cannot  find  a  man  who  has  decided  for 
Christ  who  ever  regretted  it.  I  have  stood  at  the  bedside 
of  many  who  were  dying,  and  I  never  saw  one  that  re- 
gretted that  he  had  decided  for  Christ. 

O  decide  now.  "  Now  is  the  accepted  time."  The  last 
night  I  preached  in  the  second  Fanvell  Hall  I  made  the 
greatest  mistake  of  my  life.  I  told  the  people  to  take  this 
text  home  with  them  and  pray  over  it.  But  as  we  went 
out  the  fire-bells  were  ringing,  and  I  never  saw  that  au- 
dience again.  The  fire  had  come.  The  city  was  in  ashes  ; 
and  perhaps  some  of  those  very  people  were  burned  up  in 
it.     There  is  no  other  time  to  be  saved  but  now. 


160     Moody:  His  Words— Work — Workers. 


JACOB. 

At  one  of  his  Bible  readings  in  Farwell  Hall  Mr.  Moody  delivered  a 
lecture  on  the  "Life  and  Character  of  Jacob." 

The  freedom  with  which  he  points  out  the  faults  in  Bible  char- 
acters may  be  somewhat  surprising  to  those  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  think  that  all  the  men  and  women  whose  history  God 
narrates  in  his  book  must  necessarily  be  good  men  and  women. 
Mr.  Moody  said  that  this  was  formerly  his  view  of  the  Bible  charac- 
ters, but  that  he  afterward  discovered  his  error.  The  men  and 
women  of  the  Bible  were  just  such  men  and  women  as  were  to  be 
found  outside  of  it.  Their  virtues  were  of  the  same  kind,  and  their 
faults  of  the  same  kind,  as  characterize  persons  we  find  in  the  Church 
to-day,  and  there  was  as  much  use,  in  the  way  of  warning,  to  be 
made  of  such  characters  as  Jacob,  as  there  was  in  the  way  of  emu- 
lation in  the  study  of  the  character  of  Joseph.  On  this  occasion 
Mr.  Moody  read,  by  way  of  introduction,  the  parable  of  the  laborers 
in  the  vineyard,  recorded  in  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by 
Matthew.     He  then  spoke  as  follows:— 

tHE  key  to  all  Jacob's*  difficulties  may  be  found  in 
this  story  of  the  laborers  in  the  vineyard.  In  the 
second  verse  we  are  told  that  the  first  man  who  was 
hired  made  an  agreement  to  work  for  a  penny  a  day,  while 
the  men  who  came  afterward  made  no  bargain,  but  ac- 
cepted the  word  of  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  that  he  would 
pay  them  what  was  right.  When  the  lord  of  the  vineyard 
came  to  pay  the  laborers  for  their  day's  work  he  gave 
them  all  a  penny,  though  some  had  worked  only  half  a  day, 
or  a  quarter  of  a  day,  and  one  had  worked  only  an  hour. 
When  those  who  had  been  hired#  first  came  to  get  their 
money  they  thought  they  should  have  received  more  ;  but 


Bible  Portraits— Jacob.  161 

they  only  got  a  penny,  according  to  their  bargain.  They 
received  only  their  legal  wages.  I  can  see  them  scowling 
when  they  receive  the  penny. 

"  Is  that  all  you  are  going  to  give  me  ? "  says  one. 
"  There  is  that  man  over  there  who  only  worked  an  hour, 
and  you  have  paid  him  as  much  as  you  have  us  who  have 
borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day." 

"  That  is  true,"  says  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  ;  "  I  am 
paying  that  man  according  to  my  views  of  the  case,  and  I 
am  paying  you  according  to  the  bargain  you  made." 

You  see,  my  friends,  it  doesn't  pay  to  make  bargains 
with  the  Lord. 

Jacob  is  a  twin  brother  to  the  most  of  us.  You  will 
find  a  hundred  Jacobs  where  you  will  find  one  Joseph  or 
one  Daniel.  Joseph  was  willing  to  trust  every  thing  to 
God,  but  Jacob  wasn't  willing  to  trust  him  any  further 
than  he  could  see  him. 

There  is  always  trouble  in  a  family  where  there  are  any 
favorites.  Petting  one  child  and  finding  fault  with  an- 
other is  sure  to  bring  out  the  old  Adam.  It  looks  as  if 
Esau  was  the  favorite  son  of  his  father,  while  Jacob  was  the 
favorite  of  his  mother.  By  nature  Esau  was  the  better 
man  of  the  two  ;  and  if  such  a  mean,  contemptible  person 
as  Jacob  can  be  saved,  then  there  is  hope  for  all  of  us. 
Sometimes  when  a  man  has  a  marked  peculiarity  we 
say  he  got  it  from  his  lather  or  his  mother.  I  think 
Jacob  took  after  his  mother.  She  wasn't  willing  to  wait 
on  the  Lord,  but  wanted  to  arrange  every  thing  connected 
with  her  children's  future  herself,  and  in  this  she  was 
like  a  good  many  parerfts  in  these  days.  You  remember 
that  Rebecca  formed  a  plan  to  get  Jacob  into  the  good 


162      Moody:  His  Words— Work— Workers. 

graces  of  his  father,  and  to  obtain  for  him  the  birthright 
of  his  brother  ;  but  you  will  notice  that  it  got  him  into 
great  trouble.  Jacob  had  to  leave  home,  and  the  mother 
died  before  he  returned.  Rebecca  tried  to  get  something 
for  Jacob  by  fraud,  and  he  acted  out  the  lie. 

Up  to  the  time  of  Jacob's  departure  from  home  there 
was  little  that  was  lovely  in  his  character.  He  had  a 
mean,  miserable  nature,  but  God  gave  him  grace  to  subdue 
it.  The  Lord,  from  the  top  of  the  ladder  which  he  saw 
reaching  up  to  heaven,  promised  him  what  he  should  have, 
and  then  Jacob  gets  up  and  begins  to  make  a  bargain  with 
God,  and  says,  "If  you  will  do  so  and  so  with  me — if  you 
will  be  with  me,  and  keep  me,  and  clothe  me — then  you 
shall  be  my  God."  What  a  contemptible  speech  !  God 
had  promised  him  all  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  but  he  is  not 
satisfied  without  making  some  special  terms  of  his  own. 
That  is  just  the  way  with  a  great  many  of  us.  If  God  will 
bless  us  in  our  basket  and  our  store  we  will  have  him  for 
our  God  ;  but  the  minute  we  fail  to  get  something  we 
want,  we  begin  to  find  fault  with  him. 

Now  look  at  Jacob  down  there  in  Haran.  He  is  driv- 
ing bargains  all  the  time,  and  always  gets  the  worst  of  it. 
He  works  seven  years  for  his  wife,  and  then  gets  another 
woman  in  her  place.  He  had  started  out  wrong  with  a 
lie  on  his  lips,  and  now  he  gets  paid  back  in  his  own 
coin.  But  we  do  not  hear  that  he  made  any  confession. 
One  would  have  thought  that  when  God  met  him  at 
Bethel  he  would  have  confessed  his  sins,  but  he  did  not. 

Some  people  seem  to  think,  that  because  God  chose 
Jacob  instead  of  Esau  Jacob  must  have  been  a  very  good 
man  and  Esau  a  very  bad  one  ;  but  we  must  not  forget 


Bible  Portraits— Jacob.  163 

that  some  of  God's  promises  are  conditional  and  others 
unconditional.  The  promise  which  he  made  to  Jacob 
was  of  the  latter  class.  God  was  dealing  in  sovereign 
grace  with  him,  for  God  is  a  sovereign  and  has  the  right 
to  do  what  he  pleases.  The  Bible  says  that  Jacob  was 
chosen  before  he  was  born.  That  was  the  election  in  his 
case,  but  it  doesn't  say  that  his  soul  was  saved  or  that 
Esau's  soul  was  lost.  It  was  a  question  of  an  entirely 
different  kind. 

After  Jacob  has  been  in  Haran  for  some  years  God  says 
to  him,  "  I  am  the  God  of  Bethel,  arise  and  dwell  there." 
And  now  we  find  him  stealing  away  from  Haran  like  a 
thief,  pursued  by  his  father-in-law  and  uncle. 

Then,  again,  when  he  hears  that  Esau  is  coming  to  meet 
him  he  makes  another  cowardly  exhibition  of  himself.  I 
suppose  he  had  got  out  of  communion  with  God.  A  man 
out  of  communion  with  God  is  always  a  coward. 

In  the  midst  of  his  trouble,  while  he  is  trembling  with 
fear  at  the  thought  of  meeting  his  brother  whom  he  has 
wronged,  he  meets  an  angel,  who  wrestles  with  him  until 
the  break  of  day,  and  who  at  length  touches  his  thigh  and 
puts  it  out  of'joint.  By  this  miracle  Jacob  understands 
that  this  is  the  angel  of  the  Lord.  I  suppose  it  was  the 
Jesus  Christ  of  the  Old  Testament. 

There  is  this  to  be  noticed,  that  as  long  as  Jacob  was 
able  to  wrestle  in  his  own  strength  he  did  not  prevail  ; 
but  when  his  thigh  was  out  of  joint,  and  all  he  could 
do  was  to  hold  on  to  the  Lord,  he  got  the  blessing. 
It  is  the  man  who  is  lowest  down  that  God  is  most  willing 
to  lift  up.  The  man  that  has  the  greatest  humility  is  the 
one  to  be  most  exalted. 


164      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

Some  people  tell  us  that  after  this  Jacob  was  a  very  dif- 
ferent man,  but' not  long  after  he  has  escaped  the  danger 
he  feared  from  his  brother,  we  find  him  going  down  to 
Shechem  and  building  an  altar  and  calling  it  by  a  high- 
sounding  name,  El-Elohe-Israel ;  that  is,  the  God  of 
Israel.  But  Jacob  in  Shechem,  with  his  high  altar,  was  no 
better  than  Jacob  in  Haran  without  any  altar.  The  Lord 
did  not  tell  him  to  go  to  Shechem. 

I  think  the  trouble  with  a  great  many  people  is,  that 
they  have  gone  down  to  Shechem  instead  of  going  to 
Bethel.  We  find  Jacob's  children  getting  into  trouble 
here,  and  that  is  where  the  children  of  the  members  of  the 
Church  are  very  apt  to  get  into  trouble.  They  stay  away 
from  the  place  of  the  Lord's  appointment  and  choose  out 
places  for  themselves.  But  just  the  moment  Jacob  came 
to  Bethel  the  Lord  met  him.  And  just  as  soon  as  the 
Church  leaves  Shechem  and  comes  to  Bethel  the  Lord 
will  meet  it. 

The  next  thing  we  hear  is  the  death  of  his  favorite  wife, 
Rachel,  and  not  long  afterward  comes  the  famine,  when 
he  is  obliged  to  send  down  to  Egypt  for  corn.  You 
remember  how  his  sons  sold  Joseph  into  slavery,  and  came 
back  to  their  father  and  said  they  had  found  his  torn  and 
bloody  coat,  and  the  old  man  mourned  him  as  dead  for 
twenty  long  years.  He  had  deceived  his  own  father,  and 
now  his  sons  deceive  him.  Surely  he  might  say  to  Pha- 
raoh, "  Few  and  evil  have  the  days  of  the  years  of  my  life 
been." 

Poor  man  !  he  started  out  with  a  lie  in  his  mouth,  and 
after  a  life  of  trouble  and  mourning  he  dies  an  exile  in 
Egypt  instead  of  in  the  land  that  God  had  promised  him. 


Bible  Portraits — Jacob.  165 

He  would  not  let  God  choose  for  him,  and  that  is  the 
cause  of  the  failure  of  his  life.  I  suppose  Jacob  was  saved 
so  as  by  fire,  or,  as  Job  says,  by  the  skin  of  his  teeth  ;  but 
his  life  ought  to  be  a  warning  to  us  to  show  us  that  it  is 
best  to  let  God  do  the  choosing  and  planning  for  us,  and 
to  be  satisfied  and  wait  upon  him,  saying,  "Thy  will,  not 
ours,  be  done."  We  gain  nothing  by  trying  to  drive  sharp 
bargains  with  God,  and  we  gain  just  as  little  by  doing  the 
same  thing:  with  men. 


166      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


JOSHUA. 

The  character  of  Joshua,  as  depicted  by  Mr.  Moody,  is  a  lesson 
of  godly  courage.  Mr.  Moody  himself  professes  to  have  been  blessed 
with  "a  forehead  of  brass,"  and  it  is  natural  to  expect  in  him  a  great 
admiration  of  this  quality  in  other  men  similarly  endowed.  Joshua 
is  one  of  Mr.  Moody's  favorite  Bible  characters,  as  may  appear 
from  the  manner  in  which  he  speaks  of  him.  The  address  con- 
taining this  Bible  portrait  was  given  at  eight  o'clock  one  Sabbath 
morning  at  the  Tabernacle  in  Chicago,  where,  in  spite  of  a  severe 
snow-storm,  there  were  about  three  thousand  Christian  workers  as- 
sembled. The  singing  on  this  occasion  was  "  Hold  the  Fort,"  the 
chorus  by  the  whole  congregation,  and  ''Who's  on  the  Lord's  Side," 
a  solo  by  Mr.  Sankey. 

pTL  WANT  to  call  your  attention  this  morning  to  one 
(gs  word,  "  courage."  In  this  first  chapter  of  Joshua 
which  we  have  been  reading  God  is  telling  him  to  arise 
and  go  over  Jordan,  and  lead  his  people  into  the  Prom- 
ised Land,  and  he  gives  him  a  promise  in  these  words: 
"  Every  place  that  the  sole  of  your  foot  shall  tread  upon, 
that  have  I  given  unto  you,  as  I  said  unto  Moses.  .  .  . 
There  shall  not  any  man  be  able  to  stand  before  thee 
all  the  days  of  thy  life :  as  I  was  with  Moses,  so  I  will  be 
with  thee.  ...  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage:  for  unto 
this  people  shalt  thou  divide  for  an  inheritance  the  land, 
which  I  sware  unto  their  fathers  to  give  them.  Only  be 
thou  strong  and  very  courageous.  .  .  .  This  book  of  the 
law  shalt  not  depart  out  of  thy  mouth.  .  .  .  Then  thou 
shalt  make  thy  way  prosperous." 

Four  times  over  in  this  chapter  God  tells  Joshua  to 


Bible  Portraits — Joshua.  167 

be  courageous.  He  doesn't  tell  him  how  to  use  a  sword, 
or  show  him  how  to  lay  out  his  campaigns,  or  set  his  bat- 
tles in  array;  but  he  tells  him  to  meditate  on  the  word 
of  God.     That  was  to  be  his  power. 

Courage  is  necessary  to  success  in  Christian  work.  I 
have  yet  to  find  a  man  who  is  easily  discouraged  that 
amounts  to  any  thing  anywhere.  If  a  minister  is  easily 
discouraged  his  people  soon  find  it  out,  and  lose  their 
courage,  also.  If  a  Sunday-school  teacher  hasn't  any 
courage,  his  class  find  it  out  and  leave  him.  About  the 
most  worthless  set  of  people  you  can  find  is  a  lot  of 
faint-hearted  Sunday-school  teachers.  If  we  arc  to  have 
any  success  we  must  be  of  good  courage,  and  we  must 
also  meditate  upon,  and  believe  in,  and  obey  the  word 
of  God.  God  hasn't  any  use  for  a  man  who  is  all  the 
time  looking  on  the  dark  side.  What  he  wants  is  a  man 
who  isn't  afraid.  "  Be  of  a  good  courage,"  says  he,  "  fear 
nothing;  believe  that  I  am  willing  to  use  you,  and  then 
I  will  use  you." 

We  hear  a  great  deal  in  these  days  about  "  devel- 
opment," but  where  can  you  find  a  man,  with  all 
the  advantages  of  culture  and  learning,  who  is  equal 
to  this  Joshua,  brought  up  among  the  brick-kilns  of 
Egypt  ? 

The  first  thing  we  hear  of  him  he  is  fighting  against 
Amalek,  and  prevailing  against  him.  He  is  victorious  to 
begin  with,  because  God  is  with  him. 

It  appears  that  Joshua  didn't  like  lay  preachers.  On 
a  certain  occasion  he  finds  two  men,  named  Eldad  and 
Medad,  who  were  prophesying  in  the  camp,  but  who  had 
never  been  ordained.     They  didn't  even  belong  to  the 


i68       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

company  of  the  seventy  elders ;  so  he  goes  and  reports 
the  thing  to  Moses,  and  wants  him  to  stop  them. 

The  people  of  that  class  are  not  all  dead  yet.  We 
find  a  good  many  who  are  opposed  to  having  the  lay- 
men preach  ;  but  the  word  of  the  Lord  is,  "  Let  him  that 
•heareth  say,  Come ;"  and  a  layman  can  hear  as  well  as 
if  he  had  been  ordained.  If  I  saw  a  man  fall  into  a  river 
do  you  think  I  should  go  off  and  get  somebody  to  lay 
hands  on  me  before  I  should  try  to  pull  him  out  ? 
Would  you  have  the  good  Samaritan,  on  his  way  to 
Jericho,  when  he  finds  the  man  wounded  and  half  dead 
by  the  way-side,  leave  the  poor  fellow  there  while  he 
goes  away  to  get  some  of  his  priests  to  ordain  him  ?  By 
the  time  he  would  come  back  to  the  wounded  man  it 
might  be  too  late  to  do  him  any  good. 

We  find  that  Moses  hadn't  any  such  prejudice  against 
lay  preachers  as  Joshua  had.  He  rebukes  him,  and  says 
he  wishes  that  every  body  in  the  camp  was  able  to 
prophesy,  as  well  as  Eldad  and  Medad  ;  so  that  is  the  last 
we  hear  of  Joshua's  complaints  about  lay  preachers. 

It  looks  as  if  God  meant  to  have  his  people  go  over 
Jordan  at  Kadesh-barnea,  and  enter  at  once  into  the 
Promised  Land,  instead  of  wandering  about  in  the  desert 
for  forty  years.  But  instead  of  going  straight  over,  when 
they  come  to~  the  Jordan  they  stop  on  the  wilderness 
side,  and  Moses  sends  out  an  investigating  committee 
to  spy  out  the  country. 

This  committee  consisted  of  twelve  men,  one  from 
each  tribe,  who  were  to  go  through  the  land  and  inspect 
it.  When  they  got  back  they  brought  in  what  we 
should  call  a  majority  and  a  minority  report.     Ten  of 


Bible  Portraits— Joshua.  169 

them  were  discouraged.  Like  many  people  nowadays, 
they  had  been  looking  on  the  dark  side.  They  said  it 
was  a  good  land,  a  rich  land,  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey  ;  but  they  had  been  looking  at  the  strong 
cities,  with  their  walls  reaching  up  to  heaven,  and  they 
had  seen  some  of  the  sons  of  Anak,  those  tall  giants,  and 
they  were  terribly  frightened  at  them.  "When  one  of 
those  giants  looked  down  upon  us,"  said  they,  "  we  felt 
as  if  we  were  but  grasshoppers ;  their  swords  and  spears 
are  so  big  we  could  hardly  lift  them  ;  one  of  those  Ana- 
kims  is  equal  to  a  score  of  us,  who  haven't  any  weapons 
to  defend  ourselves.  We  are  not  used  to  war,  and  it  is 
folly  for  us  to  try  to  capture  this  Canaan  from  the  hands 
of  these  giants  who  have  been  fighting  and  conquering 
all  their  lives.  We  are  not  able  to  go  up  and  possess 
this  land. 

But  this  man  Joshua  and  his  friend  Caleb,  who  were 
members  of  this  investigating  committee,  had  been  look- 
ing at  the  subject  in  a  different  light.  The)-  had  seen 
the  giants  and  the  cities,  but  they  had  also  remembered 
the  God  of  Israel.  They  called  to  mind  how  he  had 
brought  them  up  out  of  Egypt  in  spite  of  Pharaoh  ;  how 
he  had  brought  them  through  the  Red  Sea,  which  had 
opened  its  waters  to  let  them  pass ;  how  he  had  rained 
down  bread  from  heaven,  and  made  the  waters  to  flow 
out  of  the  rock  for  them.  This  was  the  hind  which 
Jehovah  had  promised  to  give  them  for  an  inheritance; 
therefore  the  giants  were  nothing  but  grasshoppers  to 
them.  So  they  brought  in  a  minority  report,  and  said, 
"  We  arc  well  able  to  go  up  and  possess  the  land." 

I  thank  God  for  Caleb  and  Joshua!     Whenever  a  man 


i;o      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

is  walking  with  God  he  looks  down  on  the  giants  as  if 
they  were  grasshoppers,  but  just  as  quick  as  he  loses 
sight  of  the  Lord  and  begins  to  think  of  himself,  he  be- 
comes a  grasshopper  in  his  own  eyes,  and  the  giants 
look  terribly  large.  I  would  to  God  that  every  Chris- 
tian in  Chicago  were  like  Caleb  and  Joshua!  and  then, 
instead  of  being  discouraged  at  these  saloons,  and  thea- 
ters, and  gambling  dens,  we  should  all  be  ready  to  move 
forward  in  the  name  of  God,  and  gloriously  beat  back 
these  hosts  of  hell. 

How  many  people  do  you  suppose  there  were  in  Chi- 
cago who  thought  it  was  foolish  to  put  up  this  great 
Tabernacle?  One  man  said  to  me,  "There  is  no  use  in 
building  such  a  great  place ;  it  will  never  be  full ;  if  you 
get  Farwell  Hall  full  you  will  do  better  than  I  think  you 
will."  That  man  had  been  looking  at  the  giants,  you  see. 
Some  people  say  we  cannot  have  successful  meetings, 
because  the  public  mind  is  so  much  taken  up  with  poli- 
tics ;  and  there  is  the  Exposition  besides.  They  do  not 
believe  we  can  do  any  thing  in  the  way  of  revival  till 
politics  and  the  Exposition  are  out  of  the  way.  These 
people  are  looking  at  the  giants,  and  that  is  all  wrong. 
If  God  is  with  us  we  shall  succeed,  and  a  wave  of  salva- 
tion will  roll  over  this  city  that  will  bring  a  great  many 
of  its  worst  sinners  to  Christ. 

But  Israel  did  not  believe  in  God,  so  they  accepted 
the  majority  report,  and  were  so  angry  with  Caleb  and 
Joshua  that  they  were  going  to  stone  them  to  death  ; 
but  the  Lord  preserved  them,  for  he  had  great  use  for 
them  by  and  by. 

So   Israel  was  turned   back  into    the  wilderness,  and 


Bible  Portraits— Joshua.  171 

wandered  there  for  forty  years,  till  every  man  who  came 
up  out  of  Egypt,  except  these  two,  had  laid  his  bones 
in  the  desert. 

And  now  we  see  Israel  coming  up  again  to  the  Jordan. 
It  is  in  time  of  harvest,  when  the  Jordan  overflows  its 
banks.  God  was  going  to  test  their  faith  before  he  took 
them  into  Canaan.  Some  of  them  might  have  said, 
"  This  is  a  pretty  time  to  bring  us  up  to  cross  this  river  ! 
We  haven't  an}-  boats,  or  pontoons,  or  rafts,  and  how  are 
we  to  cross  the  swift  and  swollen  stream?"  But,  though 
God  keeps  them  there  for  three  days  looking  at  that 
great  rushing  river,  we  do  not  hear  a  word  of  complaint. 
God  told  them  to  sanctify  themselves,  and  then,  on  the 
fourth  da}%  the  priests  went  down  to  the  edge  of  the 
water  bearing  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  and  the  water  divided 
and  stood  up  in  great  heaps  on  one  side  and  the  other, 
so  that  the  people  passed  through  the  river  dry-shod. 
There  wasn't  even  a  sign  of  dampness  on  their  shoes. 

The  ark  of  God  was  placed  in  the  bed  of  the  river 
Jordan.  God  went  down  into  death — for  that  is  what 
Jordan  means — and  held  back  the  waters  till  the  people 
were  all  passed  over.  Then  with  twelve  stones  out  of 
the  bed  of  the  stream  Joshua  built  a  monument  to  mark 
the  spot  where  God  had  brought  his  people  through  the 
river.  "  Though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death,  1  will  fear  no  evil;  for  thou  art  with  me;  thy 
rod  and  thy  staff  the}-  comfort  me." 

As  soon  as  they  struck  the  other  shore  they  kept  t he- 
law  of  their  God,  and  circumcised  the  people,  thus  put- 
ting blood  between  themselves  and  their  past  life  in  the 
wilderness.     Mere  is  more  of  blood,  vou  sec. 


i/2      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

A  few  days  after  Joshua  was  taking  a  look  at  Jericho, 
when  a  man  with  a  drawn  sword  stood  suddenly  before 
him.  "Art  thou  for  us,  or  for  our  adversaries?"  asks 
Joshua.  "  Nay ;  but  as  captain  of  the  host  of  the  Lord 
am  I  come."  I  have  no  doubt  but  this  was  the  Son  of 
God  himself,  and  that  they  planned  the  battle  together  for 
the  capture  of  that  great  city.  But  what  a  plan  !  It  was 
the  most  absurd  battle  any  one  could  imagine.  Seven 
priests  with  seven  trumpets  of  rams'  horns  were  to  march 
round  the  city  and  blow  the  trumpets,  while  the  ark  of 
the  Lord  followed,  the  army  going  ahead.  Now  what 
an  absurd  thing  that  seems  to  be  !  Suppose  Dr.  Gibson 
and  Dr.  Goodwin,  and  Bishop  Foley  and  Bishop  M'Laren, 
and  some  more  of  our  dignitaries,  were  to  march  round 
Chicago  in  that  fashion,  wouldn't  they  look  rather  green  ? 
Some  people  would  say  they  ought  at  least  to  have  sil- 
ver or  golden  trumpets  instead  of  those  rough-looking 
rams'  horns.  Round  they  go,  looking  at  the  walls  of  the 
great  city.  "  Ha!  did  you  see  that  giant  lifting  his  head 
and  shaking  his  finger  at  us  ?  " 

The  next  day  they  go  round  again,  and  the  next  day, 
and  the  next,  till  the  people  of  Jericho  began  to  laugh, 
and  make  all  manner  of  sport  of  them.  They  have  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  watch  these  strange  people,  and 
see  that  they  don't  undermine  the  walls  ;  but  they  seem 
to  be  doing  nothing  but  marching  round  and  round 
and  blowing  the  rams'  horns.  They  haven't  any  batter- 
ing-rams ;  there  are  no  cracks  in  the  walls  where  they 
can  make  a  rush  and  get  in  ;  there  is  nothing  they  can 
do  but  to  go  round.  But  when  God  says,  "  Go  round," 
that  is  the  thing  to  do.     On  the  seventh  day  they  make 


Bible  Portraits— Joshua.  173 

the  circuit  of  the  city  once,  and  then  start  to  go  round 
again.  The  Jericho  people  don't  know  what  to  make  of 
it ;  they  watch  them  as  they  go  round  again  and  again  ; 
silent — not  a  sound  of  a  human  voice.  But  at  the  seventh 
round  they  gave  a  great  shout,  and,  behold  !  the  walls 
of  the  city  fell  down  before  them,  and  they  entered  in 
and  took  it !  It  was  all  of  God.  No  one  might  say  that 
he  had  helped  to  take  that  great  city.  The  glory  of  it 
was  all  to  be  the  Lord's. 

God  was  as  good  as  his  promise.  No  one  was  able  to 
stand  before  Joshua  all  the  days  of  his  life.  All  the 
kings  of  the  Canaanites,  with  all  their  great  armies,  their 
giants,  their  chariots,  and  their  horsemen,  were  all  as 
grasshoppers  before  the  face  of  this  courageous  servant 
of  God.  He  subdued  thirty-one  kings ;  conquered  the 
land  of  Canaan,  and  divided  it  among  the  tribes  of  Israel ; 
but  for  himself  he  chose  only  one  mountain,  which  was 
dear  to  him  because  it  was  near  to  Shiloh. 

We  do,  indeed,  read  of  one  instance  in  which  an  army 
sent  out  by  Joshua  failed  to  stand  before  its  enemies; 
but  Joshua  was  not  with  them. 

After  the  walls  of  Jericho  had  fallen  down  before  them 
the  next  place  they  went  to  was  Ai.  Joshua  felt  so  con- 
fident that  he  sent  only  three  thousand  men  against  it ; 
but  for  some  reason  or  other  his  little  army  fled  before 
the  men  of  Ai. 

"Then  Joshua  rent  his  clothes,  and  fell  to  the  earth 
upon  his  face  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord  until  the  even- 
tide, he  and  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  put  dust  upon  their 
heads.  And  Joshua  said,  Alas,  O  Lord  God,  wherefore 
hast  thou  at  all  brought  this  people  over  Jordan,  to  de- 


i;4     Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

liver  us  into  the  hands  of  the  Amorites,  to  destroy  us? 
Would  to  God  we  had  been  content,  and  dwelt  on  the 
other  side  Jordan  !  O  Lord,  what  shall  I  say,  when  Israel 
turneth  their  backs  before  their  enemies!  For  the  Ca- 
naanites  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  shall  hear  of 
it,  and  shall  environ  us  round,  and  cut  off  our  name  from 
the  earth:  and  what  wilt  thou  do  unto  thy  great  name? 
And  the  Lord  said  unto  Joshua,  Get  thee  up  ;  wherefore 
liest  thou  thus  upon  thy  face?  Israel  hath  sinned,  and 
they  have  also  transgressed  my  covenant  which  I  com- 
manded them :  for  they  have  even  taken  of  the  accursed 
thing,  and  have  also  stolen,  and  dissembled  also,  and  they 
have  put  it  even  among  their  own  stuff.  Therefore  the 
children  of  Israel  could  not  stand  before  their  enemies, 
but  turned  their  backs  before  their  enemies,  because 
they  were  accursed  :  neither  will  I  be  with  you  any  more, 
except  ye  destroy  the  accursed  from  among  you." 

That  was  why  they  were  unsuccessful,  that  was  why 
they  were  tlefeated  ;  and  now  if  there  is  going  to  be  a 
defeat  in  this  city,  it  will  be  because  of  the  sins  of  God's 
people.  It  is  easy  enough  to  talk  about  unconverted 
men  confessing  their  sins  and  turning  to  God  ;  but  if  the 
Church  does  not  confess  its  sins,  we  cannot  expect  sin- 
ners to  do  it.  Some  one  says,  "  A  sin  unconfessed  is 
like  a  bullet  in  a  man's  body."  We  cannot  expect  to  be 
healthy  while  there  is  sin  in  us. 

I  like  to  think  of  Joshua  after  his  fighting  days  were 
over,  and  he  had  brought  the  Lord's  people  into  the 
land  which  had  been  promised  to  them ;  calling  the 
elders  of  Israel  together,  and  making  a  solemn  covenant 
with  them  that  they  should  not  forsake  the  Lord  that 


Bible  Portraits — Joshua. 


/  3 


had  brought  them  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And 
when  he  comes  to  his  death  he  leaves  this  dying  testi- 
mony: "  Not  one  thing  hath  failed  of  all  the  good  things 
which  the  Lord  your  God  spake  concerning  you." 

We  read  that  "  Israel  served  the  Lord  all  the  days 
of  Joshua,  and  all  the  days  of  the  elders  that  overlived 
Joshua,  and  which  had  known  all  the  works  of  the  Lord 
that  he  had  done  for  Israel."  That  is  a  glorious  record. 
There  was  courage  enough  in  him  to  supply  a  whole 
nation  ;  and  even  after  he  was  dead  the  power  of  his 
godly  example  continued  for  a  generation.  May  the  Lord 
help  us  all  to  be  of  good  courage  !  We  are  now  at  Ka- 
desh-barnea  ;  the  Promised  Land  is  before  us.  Let  us 
go  over  and  possess  it,  and  may  the  Lord  give  us  the  de- 
sire of  our  hearts  in  the  salvation  of  multitudes  of  souls! 

Be  of  good  courage  ;  fear  nothing.  Believe  that  God 
is  willing  to  use  you,  and  then  he  will  use  you  in  such  a 
way  that,  like  Joshua,  nothing  shall  be  able  to  stand  be- 
fore you.  People  have  been  asking  me  if  I  don't  feel 
very  much  encouraged  by  the  great  congregations.  Well, 
I  will  tell  you  what  encourages  me  a  great  deal  more 
than  the  crowds.  At  the  Noon  Prayer-meeting  in  Far- 
well  Hall  to-day  the  Lord  was  with  us.  There  were  a 
threat  many  who  felt  their  hearts  growing  tender,  and 
when  people  begin  to  have  broken  hearts  before  the 
Lord  I  always  feel  greatly  encouraged.  It  is  very  grat- 
ifying to  see  so  many  people  here,  but  we  must  not  de- 
pend on  numbers.  If  the  people  of  God  are  brimful  of 
faith  and  courage,  one  shall  chase  a  thousand,  ami  two 
put  ten  thousand  to  flight.  If  we  only  had  a  few  hun- 
dred people  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  courage,  and 


176      Moody:  ins  Words — Work — Workers. 

who  meditate  upon  the  word  of  God,  we  could  lift  up  the 
standard  of  Jesus  Christ  in  this  dark  city,  and  the  Lord 
himself  would  arise  and  shake  terribly  the  earth.  A  great 
many  people  are  always  seeing  lions  in  the  way.  They 
are  always  looking  for  failure.  I  think  that  such  people 
hinder  the  cause  of  God  more  than  any  other.  They  are 
in  the  way.  They  are  of  no  use  themselves,  and  they 
take  away  the  power  and  courage  of  others.  Look  at 
Elijah  at  Mount  Carmel  standing  up  as  bold  as  a  lion  in 
the  face  of  all  the  priests  of  Baal.  He  did  a  great  day's 
work  that  day.  But  the  very  next  thing  we  hear  is  that 
a  woman  sent  him  a  message  threatening  to  kill  him,  and 
the  poor  man  was  so  scared  that  he  fled  for  his  life  into 
the  wilderness,  and  sat  down  beneath  a  juniper-tree,  and 
began  to  pray  the  Lord  to  take  away  his  life. 

O,  my  friends,  it  is  a  very  bad  place  for  God's  people 
under  the  juniper-tree.  What  they  should  do  is  to  come 
up  boldly  and  face  their  duty,  and  not  be  afraid  of  men, 
women,  or  devils. 


Bible  Portraits— Pharisee  and  Pi  blican.  177 


THE     PHARISEE     AND     THE     PUBLICAN. 

nTj-T  ERE  arc  two  representative  men;  and  I  suppose 
<^t^  you  might  divide  this  audience  into  the  two 
classes  they  stand  for.  One  of  them  trusts  in  his  own 
righteousness ;  the  other  doesn't  have  any  righteousness 
to  trust  in,  and  so  he  goes  to  the  Lord. 

I  think  this  whole  community  might  be  divided  into 
Pharisees  and  Publicans. 

Now  let  us  take  a  look  at  this  Pharisee,  whose  pict- 
ure Christ  has  painted  for  us.  His  spirit  is  very  com- 
mon among  certain  classes  of  people.  He  is  all  the 
time  measuring  himself  by  his  neighbors.  He  is  proud 
and  conceited — thinks  he  is  "  not  as  other  men."  Ah, 
my  friends,  pride  is  a  plant  which  grows  in  all  sorts  of 
climates  and  all  sorts  of  soils.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest 
enemies  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Nebuchadnezzar  lost 
his  throne  and  reason  by  it ;  by  it  Lucifer  fell  from 
heaven,  for  even  up  among  the  angels  he  raised  the  flag 
of  revolt  close  by  the  throne  of  God.  How  many  people 
there  are  who,  like  this  Pharisee,  are  just  living  on  the 
forms  of  religion  !  If  you  will  only  give  them  the  show, 
they  don't  care  any  thing  for  the  substance  ;  just  give 
them  the  husk,  and  they  don't  care  for  the  wheat. 

We  read  that  this  man  stood  and  prayed  "  with  him- 
self." That  is  a  queer  way  to  pray.  He  stood  up  there 
and  stretched  himself,  and  said.  "  God,  I  thank  thee  that 


178       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

I  am  not  as  other  men;"  and  this,  too,  while  the  angels 
in  heaven  were  vailing  their  faces,  and  crying,  "  Holy, 
holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  !  "  But  this  man  is  full  of  himself. 
He  goes  on  to  tell  God  all  about  his  goodness,  as  if 
God  didn't  know  him  better  than  he  knew  himself. 
Just  listen  to  him.  "  I  fast  twice  in  the  week."  His 
Church  only  told  him  to  fast  once,  so,  you  see,  he  is  laying 
,  God  under  obligation  to  him  by  fasting  twice  as  much 
as  is  necessary.  "  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  possess."  O 
yes,  he  thought  a  great  deal  of  himself  for  that !  just  as 
some  people  think  a  great  deal  of  themselves  for  their 
gifts  to  the  cause  of  religion  in  these  days.  I  have  no 
doubt  there  are  some  people  who  say,  "  O  yes,  I  will  give 
something  toward  that  Tabernacle  and  those  meetings. 
They  are  very  good  things  for  common  people,  but  then, 
of  course,  they  are  not  of  any  use  to  me." 

"  O  yes,  I  will  give  you  fifty  dollars  for  your  Church  if 
you  will  be  sure  to  put  my  name  in  the  newspapers." 

Many  a  man  gives  his  money  patronizingly,  and  thinks 
he  is  doing  something  for  God ;  but  God  doesn't  know 
any  thing  about  such  gifts ;  he  never  writes  down  any 
such  credits  in  the  book  of  life. 

There  is  another  curious  thing  about  this  man's  prayer. 
There  isn't  any  confession  of  sin  in  it,  because  the  man 
doesn't  think  he  has  any  sins  to  confess.  Still  more,  the 
man  doesn't  ask  for  any  thing ;  he  is  so  well  satisfied 
with  himself  that  he  is  wholly  taken  up  with  talking  to 
the  Lord  about  his  righteousness.  He  has  every  thing 
he  wants. 

It  seems  to  me  that  was  a  very  prayerless  prayer. 
He  said  a  prayer,  but  he  didn't  pray  any. 


Bible  Portraits  -Pharisee  and  Publican.     179 

Now  t;ik-e  a  good  look  at  this  Pharisee,  and  see  who 
he  is  like.  His  prayer  has  thirty-four  words  in  it,  and 
there  are  nine  great  capital  I's.  If  he  prayed  as  long 
as  some  people  do,  and  put  in  "I's"  in  proportion, 
the  printer  would  have  to  go  and  borrow  some  capital 
"  I's  "  if  he  wanted  to  set  it  up.  If  you  have  such  a 
man  in  your  Churches  you  find  him  always  ready  to  pray 
when  the  minister  asks  him,  but  it  is  always  a  cold, 
prayerless  prayer,  that  puts  every  body  to  sleep.  There 
is  many  a  man  in  your  Churches  who,  if  they  got  a  look 
at  themselves  in  God's  looking-glass,  would  find  them- 
selves very  much  like  this  Pharisee. 

Now  take  a  look  at  the  other  man.  Mis  prayer  is 
short  ;  there  isn't  a  capital  "  I  "  in  it.  "  God  be  merci- 
ful to  " some  other  sinner  ?     "  God  be  merciful  to  " 

that  Church  member  who  has  wronged  me  ?     "  God 

be   merciful   to" that   hypocrite   over    there?      No, 

"God  be  merciful  to  ME,  a  sinner  I"  He  wouldn't  so 
much  as  lift  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  but  that  didn't  hin- 
der his  lifting  up  his  heart  to  God.  He  smites  his  breast, 
and  says  he  is  a  sinner.  Mr.  Spurgeon  says  that  the 
Publican  was  the  soundest  theologian  of  the  two.  He 
was  like  David,  who  prayed,  "  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O 
God,  according  to  thy  loving-kindness  ;  wash  me  thor- 
oughly from  mine  iniquity."  If  God  washes  away  our 
iniquities  the  devil  cannot  find  one  spot  in  us. 

A  great  many  people  are  trying  to  wash  away  their 
own  iniquities,  but  it  never  docs  any  good.  Take  the 
case  of  Elijah.  He  was  in  great  trouble  there  under  the 
juniper-tree,  and  the  Lord  comes  to  him,  and  says.  "  Eli- 
jah, what's  the   matter?''     "  O,"  says  he,  "I  have  been 


i So      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

very  jealous  for  thy  name  ;  now  every  thing  is  going 
wrong,  and  I  wish  I  might  die."  Now  you  can  see  he 
was  not  so  jealous  for  his  God's  name  as  he  was  for 
his  own  name,  for,  when  the  Lord  asks  him  what  is  the 
matter,  he  goes  right  to  talking  about  himself.  Ah,  my 
friends,  what  we  want  is  to  get  these  capital  "  I's  "  out 
of  the  way.  We  have  been  praying  that  God  will  search 
us  and  try  us  and  see  if  there  be  any  wicked  way  in  us. 
Now  let  us  be  honest.  Are  we  willing  to  know  the  sin 
that  is  in  us,  and  when  God  shows  it  to  us  are  we  ready 
to  put  it  away  ?  These  are  solemn  times.  We  begin  to 
see  the  secret  things  in  our  hearts.  The  Holy  Spirit 
reveals  them,  and  we  begin  to  have  a  conscience  on 
matters  that  were  out  of  sight  before. 

You  remember  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  There  was 
the  outer  court,  the  court  of  the  Gentiles.  Any  one 
might  go  there,  but  if  he  wished  to  go  further  he  must 
go  as  one  of  God's  people.  There  were  sacrifices  and 
sin-offerings  to  be  made,  and  purifyings  with  water,  and 
white  robes ;  and  then  there  was  the  holy  of  holies,  into 
which  only  the  high-priest  might  enter,  and  he  but  once 
a  year.  We  are  praying  God  to  take  us  into  the  holy 
place,  but  first  we  have  need  to  be  purified  by  the  sin- 
offering  which  Christ  has  made  for  us. 

This  heart-searching  is  a  tender  thing.  The  flesh 
shrinks  from  it.  If  there  is  covetousness  in  us,  or  pride, 
or  if  we  have  evil  habits  ;  if  we  are  guilty  of  light  and 
trifling  conduct  or  foolish  conversation  and  jesting;  if 
there  be  any  evil  way  in  us,  let  the  Holy  Spirit  show  it 
to  us,  even  though  it  prostrates  us  in  the  dust  before 
him. 


Bible  Portraits— Pharisee  and  Publican.    181 

There  is  a  leak}-  ship  at  sea.  The  captain  finds  her 
settling  down  deeper  in  the  water  and  laboring  heavily, 
and  he  sends  a  man  down  into  the  hold  to  look  for  the 

leak  ;  but  he  doesn't  find  it,  and  reports  that  every 
thing  is  all  right.  But  it  isn't  all  right,  and  if  the  leak 
cannot  be  found  there  is  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  take 
her  into  port,  put  her  into  the  dry-dock,  and  give  her 
a  thorough  overhauling.  So  with  men.  You  who  have 
secret  sins,  who  are  worldly-minded,  who  neglect  family 
and  secret  prayer,  who  are  settling  down  deeper  and 
deeper  into  the  life  of  sin,  whose  family  and  business 
partners  do  not  recognize  your  Christian  character,  and 
who  dare  not  speak  of  Christ  to  your  neighbors  for 
fear  of  being  called  a  hypocrite,  you  want  a  thorough 
overhauling  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

We  read  that  our  God  is  a  consuming  fire.  This  day 
is  the  anniversary  of  the  great  fire.  Five  years  ago  to- 
night the  fire  swept  across  the  river  at  the  place  where 
this  Tabernacle  stands,  and  burned  up  the  wood  and  the 
stone,  and  melted  the  iron  of  these  rows  of  great  build- 
ings— burned  every  thing  that  could  be  burned.  So  let 
the  fire  of  God  sweep  across  our  souls  and  burn  up  all 
the  dross  of  our  natures  and  cleanse  us  from  all  our 
sins ! 

In  one  of  our  meetings  a  man  got  up  to  speak  whom  I 
didn't  know  at  first.  When  I  lived  here  he  used  to  be  a 
rumseller,  but  he  afterward  broke  up  his  business  and 
went  to  the  mountains  and  I  lost  track  of  him.  He  and 
his  partners  opened  a  grand  billiard  hall,  and,  of  course, 
there  was  a  bar  in  it.  It  was  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
billiard  halls  on  the  West  Side,  all  elcgantlv  gilded  and 


iS2      Moody:  his  Words — Work-— Workers. 

frescoed.  When  they  got  ready  to  open  it  they  sent  me 
an  invitation  to  be  present.  So  the  day  before  they 
opened  I  went  around  and  saw  them,  and  asked  them  if 
they  were  willing  to  allow  me  to  bring  a  friend  with  me. 
They  inquired  who  it  was.  I  told  them  it  was  the  friend 
who  always  went  with  me  every-where.  Then  they  began 
to  mistrust  me,  and  tried  to  make  me  tell  who  my  friend 
was,  and  I  told  them  it  was  the  Lord  ;  and  that  if  I  saw 
any  thing  wrong  on  that  occasion  I  should  want  to  speak 
to  him  of  it. 

"  See  here  now,  Moody,"  said  they,  "  we  aint  going  to 
have  any  praying." 

"But,"  said  I,  "you  gave  me  an  invitation  to  your 
opening,  and  I  am  coming,  and  am  going  to  bring  my 
friend  with  me." 

"  But  we  don't  want  you  to  come  now,  anyhow." 

"  Ah !  but  I  am  coming,"  said  I. 

Well,  after  I  found  we  couldn't  agree  upon  it,  I  said, 
"  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do.  We  will  compromise  this 
matter,  if  you  will  kneel  down  here  now  while  I  pray  for 
bpth  of  you."  So  I  kneeled  down,  with  a  rum-seller  on 
.each  side  of  me,  and  prayed  for  them.  It  turned  out 
that  one  of  them  had  a  praying  mother,  and  the  prayer 
touched  his  heart.  I  asked  God  to  bless  the  souls  of 
these  men,  and  to  spoil  their  business;  and  in  a  few 
months,  sure  enough,  their  business  failed,  and  one  of 
these  men  went  away  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

When  he  came  back  he  stood  up  in  that  meeting  and 
gave  me  an  account  of  himself  something  like  this.  Life 
had  become  a  burden  to  him  out  there  in  the  mountains. 
He   had   lost   all  his  money,  and  made  up  his  mind   to 


Bible  Portraits— Pharisee  and  Publican.    183 

kill  himself.  With  this  terrible  thought  in  view  he  went 
to  a  lonely  place  in  the  mountains,  took  out  his  knife, 
and  was  just  going  to  plunge  it  into  his  heart,  when  he 
heard  a  voice — it  seemed  to  him  it  was  the  voice  of  his 
dead  mother — saying  to  him  over  again  the  words  which 
he  had  heard  her  say  when  she  was  dying,  "  John,  if  ever 
you  get  into  trouble,  pray  to  God.^' 

The  knife  dropped  from  his  hand.  He  didn't  know  how 
to  pray,  but  this  Publican's  prayer  came  into  his  head  : 
so  he  kneeled  there  upon  the  ground,  with  his  heart 
broken  over  his  sin  and  sorrow,  and  cried  out  in  the  bit- 
terness of  his  soul,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner!" 

The  Lord  heard  his  prayer,  and  blessed  him.  Just 
the  moment  he  cried  for  mercy  he  got  it. 

What  a  glorious  thing  it  would  be  if  every  soul  here 
would  lift  up  this  Publican's  prayer,  "  God  be  merciful  to 
me  a  sinner  !  " 


184      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


JOHN    THE    BAPTIST. 

T^HERE  had  been  a  great  many  prophets  and  wonder- 
"@,  ful  men  under  the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  but 
John  was  the  last. 

Fie  dressed  like  Elijah,  his  preaching  was  very  much  in 
Elijah's  style  ;  he  was,  in  fact,  in  a  great  many  respects, 
very  much  like  that  prophet.  A  great  many  people  talk 
about  sensational  preaching,  but  there  never  was  such  a 
sensational  preacher  as  John  the  Baptist.  He  shook  the 
whole  world.  He  got  hold  of  the  Pharisees,  those  people 
who  live  on  church  forms,  denying  the  power,  and  I  tell 
you  those  are  the  hardest  people  to  reach — harlots  and 
drunkards  are  much  more  easily  converted. 

I  used  to  think  I  should  have  liked  to  live  in  the  days 
of  the  prophets,  but  I  have  gotten  over  that.  Whenever 
a  prophet  bursts  out  on  a  nation  you  must  know  that 
every  thing  is  in  the  worst  condition  that  it  can  be  ;  every 
thing  is  chaos  and  confusion,  and  the  people  have  turned 
away  from  God.  So  I  would  rather  live  when  there  are 
no  prophets,  because  many  of  those  men  who  were  sent 
from  God  to  bring  the  nation  back  to  him  were  stern 
men,  men  of  iron  will  and  resolution.  Jesus  and  John,  in 
comparison  with  all  the  great  men  that  have  gone  before, 
are  like  the  sun  and  moon  in  comparison  with  the  stars. 
There  never  was  such  a  man  as  John  the  Baptist,  except 
the  Lord  Jesus  himself. 

It  is  evident  that  the  people  believed  in  him.     He  prac- 


Bible  Portraits— John  the  Baptist.       185 

ticed  what  he  preached,  and  they  believed  what  he  said. 
Whenever  you  find  a  man  doing  that,  casting  out  self 
and  believing  in  Jesus  down  in  his  own  heart,  the  peo- 
ple will  believe  1 1  i in,  and  flock  to  hear  him.  The  great 
trouble  with  many  of  us  is,  we  say  a  great  deal  that  we 
don't  mean.  John  didn't  want,  and  wouldn't  receive,  hon- 
or from  men  ;  he  simply  delivered  his  message.  The 
result  was,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  rested  upon  him,  and 
God  used  him  to  do  a  great  work. 

I  notice  one  thing  about  his  preaching.  Up  to  the  time 
that  Christ  came  he  was  all  the  time  crying,  "  Repent ! 
Repent  !"  In  view  of  his  power  and  influence,  there  was 
a  splendid  chance  for  John  to  become  an  antichrist ;  but 
he  was  true  to  his  mission.  He  never  sought  great  things 
for  himself,  but  simply  performed  the  work  that  God  gave 
him  to  do.  The  reason  there  are  so  few  to-day  that  God 
can  use  is,  because  men  are  seeking  great  things  for  them- 
selves. This  man  was  emptied  of  self.  Ambition  was 
out  of  sight  with  him  ;  but  he  proclaimed  the  message 
as  God  had  given  it  :  he  didn't  care  what  people  said, 
but  just  told  the  Pharisees  plainly  what  he  thought  of 
them. 

But  not  only  did  he  cry  "  repent ;  "  he  told  of  the  com- 
ing of  Messiah.  You  may  preach  repentance  as  long 
as  you  like,  but  if  you  don't  preach  a  deliverance — if  you 
do  not  preach  Christ  as  coming  to  set  men  free — you  will 
do  very  little  good.  The  nation  is  now  crying  "reform." 
I  don't  know  how  long  they  are  going  to  continue  that 
cry  ;  they  have  kept  it  up  ever  since  I  remember  ;  but 
there  will  be  no  true  reform  until  Christ  gets  into  our 
politics.      Men   are  all   naturally  bad,  and  cannot  reform 


i86      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

until  the  Reformer  gets  into  their  hearts.  John  preached 
Christ  to  come,  and  I  suppose  that  was  the  reason  why  he 
drew  such  immense  crowds.  He  preached  himself  down 
and  preached  Christ  up;  and  that  is  what  every  minister 
ought  to  do.  He  said  to  the  people,  "  I  am  nothing." 
The  great  trouble  with  most  of  us  is,  that  we  think  our- 
selves something ;  we  have  got  so  much  dignity  and  position 
to  keep  up  that  the  God  of  heaven  cannot  use  us. 

[Mr.  Moody  then  gave  a  vivid  description  of  the  baptism 
of  our  Lord,  and  proceeded  :]  John  said  twice  that  he 
knew  him  not,  and  I  suppose  it  was  the  Spirit  of  God  that 
revealed  the  fact  that  his  Master  was  before  him.  As 
they  came  out  of  the  water  after  the  baptism,  there  came 
a  voice  from  the  throne  saying,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 

So  you  see  God  the  Father  believed  in  the  divinity  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Some  Bible  students  tell  us  that  that  was  the  first  time 
that  God  the  Father  had  spoken  since  Eden.  For  four 
thousand  years  he  could  not  look  down  and  say  he  was 
well  pleased,  because  the  sons  of  Adam  were  sinful  and 
disobedient ;  but  there  was  One  to  come  who  would  prove 
obedient,  and  of  him  God  said,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  And  shall  not  we  be  pleased 
with  him  ?  If  God  owned  him  as  his  Son,  shall  we  be 
ashamed  to  own  him  as  our  Saviour  ? 

After  this  remarkable  event  John's  preaching  was  en- 
tirely changed.  He  preached  all  his  sermons  from  one 
text,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world."  And  that  is  the  way  to  bring  about 
repentance — get  sinners  to  look  to  Christ. 


Bible  Portraits— John  the  Baptist.       187 

I  should  judge  from  John  iii,  26,  that  some  of  the  Bap- 
tist's disciples  got  a  little  jealous  of  Jesus  ;  but  there  was 
no  room  in  John's  heart  for  jealousy.  Thank  God  for  such 
a  man  !  Thank  God  the  world  has  had  one  man  so  full  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  that  there  was  no  room  in  him  for  jeal- 
ousy, ambition,  or  self! 

In  the  seventh  of  Luke  we  find  John  sending  his  dis- 
ciples to  learn  if  Jesus  was  the  true  Christ.  I  think  John 
is  misrepresented  here.  It  may  be  that  he  had  wavered 
because  he  was  shut  up  in  prison,  and  Christ  had  not  come 
to  see  him  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  his  disciples  could 
not  understand  the  two  men,  there  was  so  much  differ- 
ence between  John  and  Jesus.  John  was  given  to  fasting  ; 
he  wouldn't  be  seen  at  a  Publican's  feast.  He  denounced 
them  ;  he  was  the  representative  of  the  law,  and  that  was 
what  the  law  always  did  ;  but  Jesus  Christ  came  to  bring 
grace  and  truth.  The  disciples,  however,  couldn't  under- 
stand this  ;  but,  if  John  wavered,  it  was  cmite  unlike  him. 
Some  think  that  Christ  did  not  treat  John  right  in  leaving 
him  in  the  prison  ;  but  the  fact  was,  John's  work  was  fin- 
ished. He  belonged  to  the  old  dispensation  ;  the  new  one 
was  to  commence,  and  he  might  as  well  be  in  heaven  as 
down  here.  But  we  find  that,  although  Christ  did  not  visit 
John  in  prison,  he  paid  him  the  highest  tribute  that  was 
ever  paid  to  mortal  man.  He  said  of  him,  "Among  those 
that  are  born  of  women,  there  is  not  a  greater  prophet 
than  John  the  Baptist."  Luke  vii,  28. 


iS8      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


BARABBAS. 


<£i 


TfL  HAVE  often  thought  what  a  night  Barabbas  must 
^  have  spent  just  before  the  day  when  Christ  was 
crucified 

As  the  sun  goes  down,  he  says  to  himself,  "  To-mor- 
row—  only  to-morrow — and  I  must  die  on  the  cross! 
They  will  hang  me  up  before  a  crowd  of  people  ;  they  will 
drive  nails  through  my  hands  and  feet ;  they  will  break  my 
legs  with  bars  of  iron  ;  and  in  that  awful  torture  I  shall  die, 
and  go  up  to  the  judgment  with  all  my  crimes  upon  me." 

Maybe  they  let  his  mother  come  to  see  him  once  more 
before  dark.  Perhaps  he  had  a  wife  and  children,  and  they 
came  to  see  him  for  the  last  time.  He  couldn't  sleep  at 
all  that  night.  He  could  hear  somebody  hammering  in 
the  prison-yard,  and  knew  they  must  be  making  the  cross. 
He  would  start  up  every  now  and  then,  thinking  he  heard 
the  footsteps  of  the  officers  coming  for  him.  At  last  the 
light  of  the  morning  looks  in  through  the  bars  of  his 
prison.  "  To-day — this  very  day — they  will  open  that 
door  and  lead  me  away  to  be  crucified  ! " 

Pretty  soon  he  hears  them  coming.  No  mistake  this 
time.  They  are  unbarring  the  iron  door.  He  hears  them 
turning  the  key  in  the  rusty  lock.  The  door  swings  open  ; 
there  are  the  soldiers.  Good-by  to  life  and  hope !  Death, 
horrible  death,  now — and,  after  death — what  will  there  be 
then  ? 

The  officer  of  the  guard  speaks  to  him  :  "  Barabbas,  you 


Bible  Portraits— Barabbas.  189 

are  free  ! "  He  hears  the  strange  words,  but  they  make 
no  impression  on  him.  I  le  is  so  nearly  dead  with  fear  and 
horror  that  the  good  news  doesn't  reach  him.  He  hears 
it,  but  thinks  it  is  a  foolish  fancy,  or  that  he  is  asleep  and 
dreaming.  He  stands  gazing  a  moment  at  the  soldiers, 
and  then  he  comes  to  himself.  "  Don't  laugh  at  me  ! 
Don't  make  sport  of  me  !  Take  me  away  and  crucify  me  ; 
but  don't  tear  my  soul  to  pieces  ! " 

Again  the  officer  speaks:  "  You  are  free !  Here,  the 
door  is  open  ;  go  out,  go  home  ! " 

Now  he  begins  to  take  in  the  truth  ;  but  it  is  so  wonder- 
ful a  thing  to  get  out  of  the  clutches  of  the  Roman  law 
that  he  is  afraid  to  believe  the  good  news.  And  so  he  be- 
gins to  doubt,  and  ask  how  it  can  be.  They  tell  him  that 
Pilate  promised  the  Jews  the  release  of  one  prisoner  that 
day,  and  that  the  Jews  have  chosen  him  instead  of  one 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  was  condemned  to  be  crucified. 

Now  the  poor  man  begins  to  weep.  This  breaks  his 
heart.  He  knows  this  Jesus.  He  was  in  the  crowd  pick- 
ing pockets  when  Jesus  fed  the  five  thousand  hungry 
people. 

"What!  that  just  man  to  die,  and  I,  a  thief,  a  highway- 
man, a  murderer,  go  free!"  In  the  midst  of  his  joy  his 
heart  breaks  at  the  thought  of  being  saved  at  such  a  cost. 

Sinner,  that  is  the  Gospel.  Christ  died  for  you,  "  the 
just  for  the  unjust."  Come  out  of  your  prisons  ;  throw 
away  the  chains  of  sin.  You  were  justly  condemned,  but 
Jesus  died  to  save  you.  Let  your  heart  break  in  peni- 
tence :  weep  tears  of  love  and  joy. 


190      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


THE    WORLDLY    WISE    MAN. 

Mr.  Moody,  having  been  requested  by  some  members  of  the  Board 
of  Trade  to  preach  a  sermon  to  the  business  men,  took  for  his  sub- 
ject the  life  and  death  of  the  rich  man  mentioned  by  the  Saviour  in 
the  twelfth  chapter  of  Luke.  In  spite  of  a  severe  storm,  with  the 
thermometer  four  degrees  below  zero,  an  audience  of  about  four 
thousand  people  assembled  at  the  Tabernacle,  in  which  the  business 
men  of  Chicago  were  very  largely  represented.  After  reading  the 
Scripture  lesson  from  Luke  xii,  Mr.  Moody  said  : — 


3"L  WANT  t« 
(jf-,  evening  t( 


WANT  to  call  your  attention  for  a  few  minutes  this 
o  the  man  we  have  been  reading  about. 
You  will  see  that  he  was  what  we  would  call  a  success- 
ful business  man  ;  one  whom  worldly  fathers  and  moth- 
ers might  hold  up  to  their  sons  as  a  model.  He  seems 
also  to  have  been  a  moral  man.  I  don't  think  he  was 
a  drunkard.  There  is  nothing  in  the  story  that  leads  us 
to  suppose  he  was  dishonest.  He  didn't  make  his  money 
by  getting  up  "  corners  "  on  grain,  or  by  letting  out  money 
at  twenty  or  thirty  per  cent,  interest.  He  didn't  operate 
in  stocks,  and  ruin  ever  so  many  people  on  some  "  Black 
Friday,'"  or  make  money  by  bets  on  the  elections.  He 
didn't  go  into  bankruptcy,  and  compromise  with  his 
creditors  by  paying  them  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar;  but, 
so  far  as  we  learn,  he  got  his  money  honestly.  There  is 
nothing  whatever  in  the  Bible  against  his  business  char- 
acter. I  don't  suppose  he  rented  buildings  for  billiard 
halls,  or  saloons,  or  brothels,  or  took  advantage  of  any 
body  in  trade.  He  made  his  money  by  farming,  and 
that  is  about  the  most  honest  way  of  doing  it. 


Bible  Portraits— Worldly  Wise  Max.      191 

People  called  him  a  shrewd,  long-headed  man.  I  have 
no  doubt  his  neighbors  held  him  in  high  esteem,  and 
perhaps  they  were  thinking  of  sending  him  to  Congress. 

If  you  had  spoken  to  this  man  about  his  soul  he  would 
have  told  you  he  was  overwhelmed  with  business,  and 
had  no  time  to  think  of  such  things.  Maybe  he  would 
have  quoted  Scripture  to  you  and  said,  "  Not  slothful  in 
business  ;  "  but  probably  he  would  have  left  out  the  rest 
of  that  verse,  as  people  so  often  do,  namely,  "  fervent  in 
spirit,  serving  the  Lord." 

A  man  came  out  here  once  from  the  East,  and  one 
of  our  Chicago  ministers  asked  him  to  preach  in  his 
pulpit :  which  he  did,  from  this  text,  "  Not  slothful  in 
business,"  but  he  went  no  further.  After  he  had  got 
through  with  his  sermon,  the  minister  said  to  him,  "  Chi- 
cago doesn't  need  any  of  that  kind  of  preaching  ;  we  have 
all  got  that  doctrine  deep  down  in  our  souls  :  what  we 
want  is  to  be  taught  how  we  may  become  "  fervent  in 
spirit,  serving  the  Lord." 

Undoubtedly  this  man  moved  in  the  best  society.  He 
had  the  best  farm  in  all  that  section  of  country,  and  the 
best  horses  and  cattle.  If  he  had  lived  in  Illinois  he 
would  have  had  all  the  fine  Short-horn  and  Alderney 
stock,  and  all  the  best  kinds  of  farming  machinery.  No 
doubt  he  lived  in  a  very  good  house,  and  had  large  and 
convenient  barns  and  other  out-buildings:  so  that,  alto- 
gether, he  would  be  regarded  as  a  very  successful  man. 

It  may  be  there  were  revival  meetings  in  his  neigh- 
borhood, but  he  was  always  too  busy  to  go.  One  of  the 
greatest  revivals  that  ever  took  place  occurred  in  those 
days   under  John  the  Baptist,  and,   perhaps,  this  great 


192      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

revivalist  preached  not  far  from  his  farm,  but  he  couldn't 
leave  his  business  to  attend.  He  saw  the  crowds  of  peo- 
ple going  by,  on  their  way  to  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  to 
hear  this  great  preacher;  but  perhaps  he  thought  they 
were  fanatics. 

No  doubt  he  belonged  to  the  synagogue,  and  be- 
lieved in  the  doctrines  of  his  sect;  but  he  didn't  be- 
lieve in  innovations.  He  had  no  faith  in  any  of  these 
irregular  means  of  grace,  and  didn't  care  any  thing 
about  hearing  that  wilderness  preacher.  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible that  he  heard  about  the  Galilean  prophet  healing 
the  sick,  raising  the  dead,  and  casting  out  devils ;  just  as 
he  is  doing  now  for  these  poor  drunkards  in  Chicago  ;  but 
I  can  seem  to  hear  him  say,  like  a  great  many  of  our 
business  men  here,  "  O,  it  is  only  a  nine  days'  wonder; 
only  an  excitement ;  it  will  all  be  over  pretty  soon." 

There  is  no  doubt  he  lived  in  fine  style ;  had  the  best 
wines  on  his  table  ;  used  to  send  down  to  Egypt  for  the 
clothes  for  himself  and  family  ;  drove  a  fine  four-in-hand, 
and  was  pointed  out  as  a  most  popular  and  prosperous 
gentleman. 

If  any  one  owed  him  a  debt  he  looked  sharp  after  him 
and  made  him  pay  it  up  ;  but  all  the  while,  though  he 
thought  himself  so  sharp,  the  devil  was  cheating  him  out 
of  his  soul. 

If  a  friend  came  to  see  him  he  would  take  him  around 
his  farm,  show  him  his  land,  his  barns,  and  "his  store- 
houses ;  point  out  this  one  and  that  one  which  he  was  go- 
ing to  pull  down  and  make  larger;  tell  him  how  he  was 
once  a  poor  boy,  and  how  his  father  died,  and  how  the 
creditors  came  and  took  every  thing,  and   how  he  com- 


Bible  Portraits — Worldly  Wise  Max.      193 

menced  life  with   nothing,  and  had  worked  his  own  way 

up  to  this  respectable  position  ;  and  his  friend  would  go 
away  almost  envying  him,  and  saying  he  was  a  most  re- 
markable man.  But  the  trouble  with  him  was,  he  was 
only  living  for  this  world  ;  life  with  him  reached  only  just 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  He  didn't  take  death  and 
eternity  into  his  plans. 

There  is  a  proverb  which  says,  "  In  ever)-  man's  gar- 
den there  is  a  sepulcher,"  but  he  didn't  remember  death 
or  judgment.  All  his  schemes  and  plans  were  for  this 
side  the  grave  ;  the  future  was  a  mystery  to  him,  and  so 
he  lived  for  the  present. 

I  can  see  him  there  in  the  parlor  of  his  elegant  man- 
sion. It  is  midnight ;  the  architect  has  been  there,  and 
he  has  been  discussing  plans  for  his  new  barns.  lie  is 
going  to  have  the  finest  barns  in  all  Palestine.  But  while 
he  is  looking  over  the  plans,  all  alone,  his  family  all  gone 
to  bed,  the  doors  all  locked,  a  stranger  lays  his  hand  on 
the  latch.  In  spite  of  the  double  locks,  and  bolts,  and 
bars,  he  enters,  walks  up  to  the  man,  lays  his  hand  on 
him,  and  says,  "  Come,  I  must  take  you  away." 

"Who  arc  you?  what  is  your  name?"  asks  the  rich 
man,  in  great  terror. 

"  Death." 

Ah,  Death  ought  not  to  have  been  a  stranger  to  him. 
He  had  seen  funerals  enough  ;  perhaps  he  had  acted  as 
jrall-bcarcr,  and  had  heard  many  funeral  sermons.  He- 
is  fifty  years  old,  and  he  ought  to  have  known  and  been 
prepared  to  meet  death  by  that  time. 

The  man  tries  to  bribe  Death  to  let  him  stay  a  little 
longer.     He  wants  to  carry  out  his  plans ;   he  wants  at 


194      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

least  to  arrange  his  will.  But  no :  Death  cannot  be 
bribed.  You  may  bribe  politicians  and  officers  of  the 
law,  but  you  can't  bribe  Death. 

The  next  morning  he  is  found  dead  in  his  chair.  Then 
there  is  great  surprise  and  sorrow.  Two  days  after  there 
is  a  fine,  imposing  funeral ;  and  some  minister,  like  some 
of  the  ministers  in  these  days,  comes  and  pronounces  a 
eulogy  over  him,  and  hopes  he  has  gone  to  a  better 
world.  O  these  lying  funeral  sermons!  How  men  try 
to  make  out  that  a  godless  life  can  be  followed  by  a 
death  in  the  Lord,  and  a  free  admittance  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  ! 

His  friends  and  relations  try  to  make  out  that  he  has 
been  a  wise  and  successful  man,  but  just  see  what  the 
Son  of  God  says  about  him  : — 

"  Thou  fool  !  " 

That  was  his  true  epitaph,  and  it  has  been  handed 
down  to  us  for  a  warning. 

I  can  imagine  some  of  you  saying,  "  If  I  had  known 
.  that  Moody  would  have  talked  about  death  to-night  I 
wouldn't  have  come  out  to  hear  him.  Why  don't  he 
talk  about  life,  about  happiness?  Why  don't  he  tell  us 
how  to  get  on  in  business?  how  to  get  through  with  the 
battle  of  life?" 

I  will  tell  you  why  I  talk  about  death.  It  is  because 
nine  out  of  every  ten  die  unexpectedly.  We  are  all  of 
us  pretty  well  acquainted  with  Death.  He  comes  into 
all  our  homes,  and  yet  when  he  comes  again  we  are  al- 
ways unprepared  for  him.  I  am  speaking  here  to-night 
to  some  who  may  be  in  eternity  to-morrow.  I  come  to 
tell  you  to  be  prepared  for  death.     Is  it  not  downright 


Bible  Portraits— Worldly  Wise  Man.    195 

folly  to  spend  your  lives  in  piling  up  wealth,  and  then  to 
die  as  this  man  died,  and  have  this  same  epitaph  written 
against  you  ? 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  sin  of 
this  man  was  simply  neglect.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
his  business  was  wrong,  but  he  neglected  his  soul  for  the 
sake  of  his  business.  Some  of  you  may  say  to  your- 
selves, "Am  I  not  kind  to  the  poor?  Am  I  not  hon- 
orable in  all  my  transactions?  Don't  I  always  pay  a 
hundred  cents  on  the  dollar?"  Yes,  but  you  are  dis- 
honest to  your  own  soul.  You  fold  your  arms  and  de- 
pend upon  your  own  good  deeds,  and  don't  come  to 
Jesus  Christ  for  salvation. 

My  friends,  there  are  only  three  steps  down  the  hill  to 
perdition:  they  are,  first:  to  neglect ;  second,  to  refuse ; 
third,  to  despise.  All  of  you  who  are  out  of  Christ  in  this 
audience  are  standing  on  some  one  of  these  three  steps 
of  the  ladder.  You  can  all  of  you  see  that  if  a  man 
neglects  his  business,  and  leaves  it  to  itself,  he  will  soon 
become  a  bankrupt.  If  a  man  neglects  his  health,  he 
will  become  an  invalid.  It  is  just  as  true  that  if  a  man 
neglects  his  soul  he  will  be  lost. 

A   sailor  was   telling  a    man  that   his   father,  and  his 
grandfather,  and  his  great  grandfather,  were  all  drowned 
.  at  sea. 

"  Win-  don't  you  prepare  to  die,  then?"  was  the  an- 
swer.    "You  may  be  drowned,  too,  any  day." 

"  Where  did  your  father  die  ?"  inquired  the  sailor. 
"  He  died  on  the  land." 
"  And  your  grandfather?" 
"  On  the  land." 


196      Moody:  his  Works— Work — Workers. 

"  And  your  great  grandfather  ?  " 

"  On  the  land,  too." 

"  And  are  you  prepared  to  die  ?"  asked  the  sailor. 

"  Well,  no  ;  I  cannot  say  I  am." 

"  Then  why  don't  you  get  prepared  ?"  said  the  sailor: 
"  it  seems  that  people  die  on  land  just  as  well  as  on  the 
sea." 

I  can  imagine  some  of  you  saying,  "  I  have  got  time 
enough.  I  don't  propose  to  settle  this  question  just  yet. 
I  have  a  good  many  years  before  me."  My  friend,  let 
us  imagine  that  we  go  to  the  cemetery  in  Graceland 
and  summon  up  the  dead  ;  or  let  us  bring  them  into  this 
hall  in  the  midst  of  this  audience,  with  their  ghastly 
winding-sheets.  You  would  find  that  most  of  them  died 
young.  Whole  generations,  whole  populations,  are  swept 
into  eternity  before  they  reach  the  allotted  age  of  man. 
Instead  of  threescore  years  and  ten,  the  average  age  is 
only  about  thirty  years. 

Dear  friends,  you  may  not  hear  my  voice  again.  I 
may  be  speaking  to  you  for  the  last  time.  You  may 
never  come  into  the  Tabernacle  again,  and  I  beg  of  you, 
as  a  friend  and  a  brother,  don't  go  out  without  salvation. 
May  God  wake  up  every  soul  here  to-night,  and  when 
death  comes  to  summon  you,  may  you  go  to  triumph 
over  the  grave,  and  so  enter  into  a  glorious  immortality ! 


Bible  Portraits— The  Incurables.        197 


THE    INCURABLES. 

tHE  first  of  these  "Incurables"  was  that  wild  man 
who  lived  among  the  tombs.  He  was  the  terror  of 
all  the  women  and  children  for  ten  miles  round,  and  a 
good  many  of  the  men  besides.  The)-  had  tried  to  bind 
him  even  with  chains,  but  he  tore  off  the  bands  as  Sam- 
son did  the  green  withes  and  new  ropes.  He  was  absolute- 
ly fulloi  devils;  but  when  Christ  comes  to  him  he  has 
only  to  speak  the  word  and  the  legion  of  devils  is  cast 
out. 

The  cure  of  this  maniac  made  a  great  excitement  all 
over  that  country,  not  so  much  because  the  poor  man 
was  freed  from  Satanic  influence  and  made  sane,  as  be- 
cause of  the  loss  of  that  great  herd  of  swine  that  the 
devils  got  into  and  drowned. 

It  seems  to  me  that  is  just  the  case  with  a  great  many 
people  in  Chicago — the}-  are  more  interested  in  swine 
than  in  salvation.  You  let  the  price  of  pork  go  up  to- 
morrow, and  there  would  be  a  much  greater  excitement 
over  it  than  there  is  over  all  the  sinners  who  are  getting 
converted  at  the  Tabernacle. 

After  the  man  is  cured  he  \yants  to  follow  Christ — 
wants  to  be  with  him — is  ready  to  follow  him  to  the  end 
of  the  earth  ;    but  Christ  sends  him  home. 

I  can  imagine  the  children  see  him  coming,  ami  they 
run  to  tell  their  mother,  "  O,  mother,  mother,  father  is 
coming!  " 


198     Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

"  Is  he?  Run  and  fasten  all  the  doors  and  windows! 
Quick!" 

They  are  all  afraid  of  him.  When  he  has  been  there 
before  he  has  acted  like  a  madman  ;  broken  the  chairs, 
tipped  over  the  tables,  dashed  the  furniture  about,  driven 
his  wife  out  of  doors,  and  nearly  frightened  the  children 
to  death.  Now  they  fasten  him  out,  and  the  children 
hide  behind  their  mother's  dress  and  listen. 

Hark  !  he  knocks  at  the  door ;  but  they  dare  not  let 
him  in.  He  tries  the  door  and  finds  it  fastened.  Then 
he  calls,  "  Mary  !   Mary  !  " 

"  Why,"  says  his  wife,  "  that  sounds  as  his  voice  used 
to  when  I  first  married  him  !  What  can  have  happened 
to  him  ?  "  Then  she  goes  to  the  door,  and  says  softly, 
"  James,  is  that  you  ?  " 

"Yes,  Mary.  I  have  come  home;  you  needn't  be 
afraid  of  me  any  more.     I  am  in  my  right  mind  now." 

The  woman  opens  the  door  just  a  little  ;  looks  into  his 
eyes ;  sees  that  he  is  gentle  and  kind.  Then  she  throws 
it  wide  open,  and  springs  into  his  arms,  weeping  for  joy, 
and  saying,  "  O  James !  James !  what  has  happened  to 
you  ? " 

"Jesus  of  Nazareth  cast  all  the  devils  out  of  me,  and 
then  sent  me  home  to  you  all  safe  and  well,"  answers 
the  man. 

"'Who  is  this  Jesus  that  you  say  has  cured  you?" 
asked  his  wife. 

"  Jesus — did  you  never  hear  of  him  ?  He  is  the  great 
Galilean  prophet ;  the  people  think  he  is  the  Christ.  He 
goes  all  about  healing  sick  folks,  and  casting  out  devils 
from  people  just  like  me.     Only  the  other  day  he  opened 


Bible  Portraits— The  Incurables.         199 

the  eyes  of  a  man  who  was  born  blind.  You  must  go 
and  see  him,  Mary,  and  take  the  children,  and  hear  the 
wonderful  words  he  speaks.  Maybe  he  would  take  up 
Johnny  and  Sarah  in  his  arms,  and  bless  them,  as  he  did 
some  other  little  children." 

I  see  them  talking  together  of  the  great  joy  that  has 
come  to  them  through  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  I  am 
sure  they  love  him  very  much  in  that  household  for 
what  he  has  done  for  them.  Pretty  soon  the  children 
begin  to  get  confidence  in  their  father,  and  one  after  an- 
other they  steal  up  to  him  and  climb  up  into  his  arms  ; 
and  now  all  that  broken-hearted  family  are  united  once 
more.  He  kisses  them  all,  hugs  them,  and  tells  them 
how  glad  he  is  to  get  back  to  them. 

Then  after  a  little  they  run  out  to  see  their  playmates, 
shouting — 

"  Papa  is  come  !  Papa  is  come  !  And  he  is  good  and 
gentle  like  your  papa.     Jesus  did  it !  Jesus  did  it !  " 

Ah,  my  friends,  Jesus  is  the  great  deliverer. 

I  like  to  think  of  him  as  a  physician  who  can  cure 
every  thing.  He  never  lost  a  patient,  and  that  is  more 
than  the  most  skilled  doctors  in  Chicago  can  say.  • 


The  next  case  is  of  a  poor  woman  who  has  spent  all 
her  living  on  physicians,  and  none  of  them  have  done 
her  any  good.  She  has  been  up  to  the  Jerusalem  doc- 
tors, and,  perhaps,  she  has  been  down  to  Memphis,  in 
Egypt-  to  see  the  doctors  there.  They  have  got  all  her 
money,  and  they  haven't  done  her  any  good,  but  rather 
have  made  her  worse.   She  has  given  up  all  hope  long  ago. 


200      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

But  one  day  a  neighbor  comes  in  to  see  her,  and 
says,  "  Have  you  heard  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  is  cur- 
ing so  many  sick  people  just  with  a  word  ?  " 
"  No,"  says  the  sick  woman,  "  I  haven't." 
"  Why,  they  say  he  cured  a  man  at  the  pool  of  Beth- 
esda  the  other  day  who  had  been  sick  for  thirty-eight 
years.  Another  man  was  sick  of  the  palsy  at  Capernaum, 
and  they  let  him  down  through  the  roof  into  the  midst 
of  the  crowd,  right  before  Jesus;  and  as  soon  as  he  saw 
it  he  told  the  man  to  rise,  and  sure  enough  he  got  right 
up,  slung  his  bed  over  his  shoulder  and  started  off  for 
home,  sound  and  well.  He  is  the  greatest  physician 
that  ever  was  seen  in  this  country." 

"  What  does  he  charge?  "  asks  the  woman.  That  is  an 
important  point  with  her,  for  she  has  spent  all  her  money 
long  ago. 

"  Nothing  at  all.  He  cures  for  nothing;  the  poor  as 
well  as  the  rich." 

"  Well,"  says  the  sick  woman,  "  if  he  ever  comes  into 
these  parts,  I  will  try  to  go  and  see  him." 

A  few  days  after  she  hears  that  he  is  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  she  puts  on  her  old  shawl  and  an  old  sun- 
bonnet — she  is  so  poor  that  she  hasn't  any  good  clothes 
— and  starts  to  go  and  see  Jesus. 

"Now,  mother,  don't  be  going  off  after  any  more  doc- 
tors," says  one  of  her  daughters.  "  You  know  you  have 
tried  ever  so  many  and  they  only  made  you  worse."  But 
she  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  them.  A  new  hope  has  sprung 
up  in  her  heart,  and  she  wants  to  be  cured. 

But  there  is  one  difficulty  she  has  not  thought  of — the 
crowd.     There  is  an  immense  crowd  round  the  Master, 


Bible  Portraits — The  Incurables.       201 

and  she  has  hard  work  to  get  at  him  at  all.  Great  strong 
men  elbow  her  back,  and  people  say  to  her,  "  Don't  crowd 
so.  Don't  you  think  other  people  want  to  be  near  him 
as  well  as  you  ?  " 

Rut  she  doesn't  seem  to  hear  them.  Maybe  they 
think  she  is  deaf.  She  pushes  on  till  she  is  within  reach 
of  the  Saviour's  garment,  and  then  out  comes  that  thin 
hand  from  under  that  shawl,  and  —  O  joy!  joy!  she  is 
healed. 

There  was  more  medicine  in  the  hem  of  Christ's  gar- 
ment than  in  all  the  apothecary  shops  in  Jerusalem. 


In  the  first  chapter  of  Mark  there  is  an  account  of 
Christ  healing  a  leper.  I  can  see  that  man  coming 
home  one  day,  and  saying  to  his  wife,  "  I  feel  very 
strange ;  there  is  something  on  my  body  which  looks 
like  leprosy." 

This  is  terrible  news.  His  wife  looks  at  him  carefully, 
and  says,  "  My  dear,  I  am  afraid  it  is  leprosy  !  " 

Ah,  what  a  cloud  comes  over  that  home.  His  wife 
and  children  are  heart-broken  all  at  once.  They  know 
very  well  what  the  leprosy  means.  He  who  is  once  pro- 
nounced a  leper  becomes  a  wanderer  forever.  It  is  worse 
than  going  down  to  the  grave.  It  is  like  living"  in  a 
sepulcher.  Banished  from  home  and  from  society,  com- 
pelled whenever  any  one  approaches  to  cry,  "  Unclean ! 
unclean  !  "  with  nothing  to  occupy  himself  except  his 
own  misery.  Ah  !  indeed,  it  is  a  terrible  thing  to  be  a 
leper ! 

The  poor  man  takes  his  little  son   in   his  arms,  kisses 


202      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

his  wife,  and  all  the  rest  of  his  heart-broken  family,  and 
then  he  goes  to  the  high-priest,  who  pronounces  him  a 
leper,  and  banishes  him  from  amongst  mankind.  Per- 
haps some  one  goes  to  tell  him  that  his  child  is  sick,  or 
dying,  but  he  cannot  go  to  him  ;  he  hears  that  he  is 
dead,  but  he  cannot  go  to  the  funeral  ;  all  he  can  do  is 
to  go  to  the  grave  when  nobody  else  is  near. 

By  and  by  the  Son  of  God  comes  along  the  road  by 
which  the  miserable  man  is  begging.  He  has  heard  of 
this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  when  he  comes  within  ear- 
shot he  cries  out  to  him,  "  Lord,  if  thou  wilt,  thou  canst 
make  me  clean  !  " 

And  Jesus  says,  "  I  will ;   be  thou  clean  !  " 

All  at  once  a  thrill  of  health  and  joy  goes  through 
the  man's  body  and  nerves ;  he  feels  himself  a  new 
creature.  The  old  leprosy  has  passed  away,  and  all  his 
life  has  become  new.  He  can  hardly  believe  it  is  him- 
self for  joy.     His  flesh  is  like  the  flesh  of  a  little  child. 

I  can  see  him  starting  at  a  full  run  to  show  himself 
to  the  priest,  and  be  pronounced  clean,  and  be  per- 
mitted to  go  to  his  home  and  his  kindred  again. 

O  what  joy  there  is  in  that  house  when  he  comes  and 
tells  them  he  has  met  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  has 
cleansed  him  !  Very  much  such  kind  of  joy  as  there  is 
in  many  homes  these  days,  when  wild  and  wicked  sons 
who  were  lost  in  sin,  and  full  of  vice  and  degradation, 
and  have  met  the  Lord  at  some  of  these  inquiry  meet- 
ings, have  gone  to  tell  their  mothers  that  they  have  been 
saved  by  believing  in  Jesus. 

Ah,  my  friends,  the  leprosy  of  sin  is  worse  than  any 
other  leprosy  that   ever  was   in   this  world.     It  spoiled 


Bible  Portraits — The  Incurables.         203 

Lucifer,  one  of  the  brightest  of  the  angels  in  heaven, 
and  yet  there  are  those  who  cling  to  their  sins,  and  re- 
fuse to  let  the  Saviour  cleanse  them  away. 


Look  at  that  maniac  boy  ;  his  father  and  mother  have 
brought  him  to  the  disciples,  and  asked  them  to  cast  the 
devil  out  of  him.  The  poor  fellow  has  been  tormented 
with  devils  all  his  life:  they  have  tortured  and  twisted 
him  out  of  all  shape  ;  the)'  have  plagued  his  mind  worse 
than  his  body  ;  they  have  wrought  all  manner  of  terrible 
mischief  with  him — thrown  him  into  the  fire,  and  into 
the  water,  so  that  his  father  and  mother  are  utterly 
broken-hearted  over  him. 

But  they  have  heard  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  power 
to  heal  the  sick  and  cast  out  devils,  and  some  of  their 
friends  have  told  them  about  the  man  who  was  in  the 
tombs  whom  he  had  saved  from  his  madness.  So  they 
bring  the  boy  where  they  suppose  they  will  find  the 
Saviour,  but  when  they  come  Jesus  is  not  there :  he  is 
away  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration. 

"  Well,"  says  the  father,  "  since  the  Master  is  away,  I 
think  we  might  try  some  of  the  disciples;  maybe  they 
can  do  something  for  him." 

So  they  bring  him  to  Thomas,  and  ask  him  if  he 
thinks  he  can  do  any  thing  for  the  poor  fellow.  Thomas 
is  not  quite  certain  about  it.  It  seems  to  be  a  bad  case, 
and  he  doesn't  quite  like  to  undertake  it ;  his  faith  is  not 
quite  up  to  the  point  of  taking  hold  of  such  a  devil  as 
that.  lie  has  cured  some  easy  cases,  but  whether  he 
will  be  able  to  do  any  £ood  now  is  more  than  he  can  tell. 


204       Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

He  watches  the  boy  in  a  fit  of  his  terrible  agony,  and 
then  he  musters  all  the  faith  and  courage  he  has,  and 
tells  the  devils  to  come  out. 

The  devils  only  laugh  at  him,  and  torment  the  boy 
worse  than  ever.  Then  he  calls  Matthew,  and  Bartholo- 
mew, and  some  of  the  rest  of  them,  and  they  all  try  their 
hands  on  him,  but  the  devils  arc  stronger  than  all  of 
them  when  the  Master  is  away.  So  the  poor  boy  lies 
there,  wallowing  and  foaming,  all  the  worse  because  of  the 
efforts  these  men  are  making  to  drive  the  devils  out. 

Pretty  soon  the  Master  himself  comes  back,  along  with 
Peter,  James,  and  John,  and  when  he  hears  about  it,  he 
looks  sorrowfully  at  those  disciples  who  had  failed  to 
cure  the  lad,  and  he  says,  "  Bring  him  to  me." 

The  devils  know  their  time  has  come  now,  and  they 
torture  the  poor  boy,  and  throw  him  down,  and  put  him 
into  agony;  but  the  moment  the  Lord  lays  eyes  upon 
him,  he  tells  them  to  depart. 

The  devils  always  obey  when  Christ  speaks  to  them. 
The  father  thinks  the  boy  is  dead,  but  the  Saviour  lifts 
him  up,  and  gives  him  to  him  alive,  and  he  goes  home 
happier  than  words  can  tell,  because  Christ  has  saved 
his  afflicted  boy. 

My  friends,  you  who  are  fathers  and  mothers,  you 
ought  to  be  encouraged  by  this  to  bring  your  children 
to  Christ.  Some  of  your  sons  are  breaking  your  hearts 
and  rushing  down  to  death  and  hell.  They  have  not  yet 
lost  their  reason,  but  if  they  were  to  die  as  they  are  now 
they  certainly  would  lose  their  souls.  Many  a  father  has 
a  worse  son  than  that  boy  the  disciples  couldn't  cure. 
I  would  rather  have  my  son  deaf  and  dumb,  and  suffer- 


Bible  Portraits — The  Incurables.         205 

ing  all  manner  of  tortures,  than  that  he  should  go  down 
to  a  drunkard's  grave  ! 

The  parents  of  this  boy  carry  their  son  to  the  disciples, 
but  they  can  do  nothing  for  him.  There  is  no  use  of 
your  depending  upon  any  man,  or  any  Church,  to  save 
the  souls  of  your  children.  What  you  must  do  with 
them  is  to  bring  them  to  the  Master  himself. 

There  is  one  point  in  this  story  that  I  want  you  espe- 
cially to  notice.  The  father,  when  he  came  to  Christ, 
said,  "//"thou  canst  do  anything,  have  compassion  on  us 
and  help  us."  Jesus  immediately  replies  by  putting  the 
"  if"  where  it  belongs,  and  says,  "If  thou  canst  believe  ; 
all  things  arc  possible  to  him  that  believeth." 

There  is  no  lack  of  power  in  Christ,  but  there  is  a  ter- 
rible lack  of  faith  in  us,  and  the  thing  for  us  to  do  is 
just  what  the  father  of  this  boy  did.  We  feel  that  our 
faith  is  too  little,  but  we  can  pray  as  he  prayed,  "  Lord, 
I  believe,  help  thou  mine  unbelief!"  And  when  the 
Lord  helps  our  faith,  so  that  we  are  able  to  take  hold 
upon  him  for  ourselves  and  for  our  children,  then  comes 
life,  and  health,  and  grace. 


2o6      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


THE    WIDOW   OF    NAIN. 

r  *HINK  of  that  poor  widow  at  Nain  !  She  is  an  old 
}Jj^  woman  now  ;  and  her  only  son,  who  is  the  staff  of 
her  life,  is  sick.  How  she  watches  him  !  sits  up  all  night 
to  see  that  he  has  his  medicine  at  the  right  time ;  sits  by 
his  bedside  all  day,  fanning  him,  keeping  away  the  flies, 
and  moistening  his  parched  lips  with  water  !  Every  thing 
he  asks  for  she  brings.  The  very  best  doctor  in  Nain  is 
sent  for,  and  when  he  comes  and  feels  the  pulse  of  the 
young  man,  and  looks  at  his  tongue,  he  shakes  his  head  ; 
and  then  the  poor  woman  knows  there  is  no  hope. 

I  can  hear  her  say,  "  My  son,  my  only  son,  must  die! 
What  will  become  of  me,  then  ?  " 

Sure  enough,  the  doctor  is  right  ;  in  a  little  while  the 
fever  comes  to  its  crisis,  and  the  poor  boy  dies,  with  his 
head  upon  his  mother's  bosom.  The  people  come  in  to 
try  to  comfort  the  poor  woman,  but  it  is  of  no  use. 
Her  heart  is  broken.     She  wishes  she  were  dead  too. 

They  make  him  ready  for  burial,  and  when  the  time 
comes  they  celebrate  the  funeral  service,  and  then  put 
him  on  the  bier  to  carry  him  away  to  the  grave. 

Just  as  they  come  out  of  the  city  gates  they  see  a 
little  company  of  thirteen  dusty-looking  travelers  coming 
up  the  road.  There  is  One  among  them  tall  and  fair; 
fairer  than  the  sons  of  men. 

He  is  moved  with  compassion  when  he  sees  this  little 
funeral  procession,  and  it  doesn't  take  him   long  to  find 


Bible  Portraits— Widow  oj  Nain.        207 

out  that  that  woman  who  walks  next  the  bier  is  a  poor 
widow,  whose  only  son  she  is  following  to  his  grave.  So 
he  tells  the  bearers  to  put  down  the  bier;  and  while  the 
mother  wonders  what  is  to  be  done  he  bends  tenderly 
over  the  dead  man  and  speaks  to  him  in  a  low,  sweet 
voice, — "  Arise  !  " 

The  "dead  man  hears  him. 

He  is  struggling  with  his  grave-clothes  !  They  unbind 
them  and  set  him  free.  He  leaps  off  the  bier,  remem- 
bers that  he  had  been  dead  ;  catches  a  sight  of  his  moth- 
er; takes  her  in  his  arms,  kisses  her  again  and  again  ;  and 
then  he  turns  to  look  at  the  stranger  who  has  wrought 
this  miracle  upon  him.  He  is  ready  to  do  any  thing  for 
that  man — ready  to  follow  him  to  the  death.  But  Jesus 
does  not  ask  that  of  him.  He  knows  his  mother  needs 
him,  and  so  he  doesn't  take  him  away  to  be  one  of  his 
disciples,  but  gives  him  back  to  his  old  mother.  t 

I  would  have  liked  to  see  that  young  man  re-entering 
the  city  of  Nain  arm-in-arm  with  his  mother.  What  do 
you  suppose  he  said  to  the  people  who  looked  at  him 
with  wonder?  Wouldn't  he  confess  that  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth had  raised  him  from  the  dead?  Wouldn't  he  go 
every-where  declaring  what  the  Lord  had  clone  for  his 
dead  body? 

O  how  I  love  to  preach  Christ,  who  can  stand  over  all 
the  graves,  and  say  to  all  the  dead  bodies,  "  Arise !  " 
How  I  pity  the  poor  infidel  who  has  no  Christ,  and  so 
goes  down  to  a  hopeless  grave  ! 


2o8       Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


THE   GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

THE  following  sketch  of  the  Good  Samaritan  is  taken  from  Mr. 
Moody's  sermon  on  the  text,  "  Who  is  my  neighbor?  "  It  forms  a 
part  of  his  list  of  what  may  be  called  Preparatory  Discourses— ser- 
mons with  which  he  opens  his  revival  campaigns.  Their  purpose  is 
to  awaken  the  Church  to  a  sense  of  its  privilege  and  duty,  and  to 
prepare  Christian  workers  for  the  service  of  the  inquiry  room. 
Christian  helpfulness  and  sympathy  are  themes  very  precious  to 
Mr.  Moody,  because  so  large  a  portion  of  his  own  life  and  labor  has 
been  in  this  direction. 

xfeTE  are  taught  in  this  chapter  that  a  lawyer  once  stood 
>£/  up  and  asked  the  Lord  what  he  should  do  to  inherit 
eternal  life.  Christ  answered  his  question  by  asking  him 
another,  "  What  is  written  in  the  law  ?  "  He  answered 
and  said,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and 
with  all  thy  mind  ;   and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

It  would  seem  that  the  lawyer  wasn't  very  well  satisfied 
with  the  Lord's  answer,  so  he  asks  another  question, 
"Who  is  my  neighbor?"  Then  Christ  tells  him  this  lit- 
tle story  of  a  man  who  went  down  from  Jerusalem  to 
Jericho,  and  fell  among  thieves. 

Who  our  neighbor  is  is  something  we  have  got  to  find 
out  before  we  can  accomplish  much  for  Christ.  The 
Church  has  been  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  finding 
out  the  answer  to  that  question,  and  very  few  have  found 
out  yet  who  is  their  neighbor. 

Jerusalem  was  called  the  city  of  peace,  God's  city  ;  Jer- 


Bible  Portraits  -The  Good  Samaritan.    209 

icho  stood  not  far  from  ancient  Jericho,  the  city  that 
Joshua  cursed.  It  was  about  twenty  miles  from  Jerusa- 
lem, and  all  the  way  down  hill. 

This  man  started  from  Jerusalem  to  go  down  to  Jericho, 
and  on  his  way  down  he  fell  among  thieves. 

A  great  many  have  traveled  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho. 
I  think  there  are  some  in  this  audience  that  will  under- 
stand what  I  mean  when  I  say,  that  this  pdor  fellow  fell 
among  thieves.  I  don't  think  Jericho  is  a  great  ways 
from  here.  I  think  you  will  find  a  good  many  that  have 
been  stripped,  and  wounded,  and  then  left  for  dead  right 
here  in  the  streets  of  Boston. 

Not  less  than  eight  or  ten  Christians  have  been  to  me  to- 
day and  wanted  me  to  set  them  to  work.  I  looked  at  them 
in  perfect  amazement.  People  that  have  been  living  in 
Boston  for  ten  or  fifteen  years  want  me,  a  stranger,  to  set 
them  to  work  !  Why,  you  will  find  enough  to  do  without 
my  telling  you  if  you  just  keep  your  eyes  open.  There 
are  a  great  many  men  that  are  waiting  for  some  one  to 
come  and  help  them  up.  Satan  has  tripped  them.  They 
have  fallen  among  thieves,  and  they  are  not  only  half 
dead,  but  many  of  them  are  altogether  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins. 

Now,  the  cases  of  these  three  men  that  Christ  mentions 
here  are  cited  for  our  profit,  so 'let  us  take  a  look  at  them. 
The  first  man  was  a  priest.  He  belonged  to  the  temple  up 
there  in  Jerusalem.  He  was  on  his  way  down  to  Jericho, 
perhaps  on  some  very  important  business  ;  maybe  they 
were  going  to  dedicate  a  new  synagogue,  and  he  was  on 
his  way  down  to  open  the  service. 

When    he   gets   about    ten    miles  from    Jerusalem,   as 


210      Moody  :  ins  Words — Work — Workers. 

he  is  passing  along  thinking  about  his  sermon,  he  hears 
somebody  groan.  He  is  in  a  great  hurry,  but  he  turns 
•  and  looks  to  see  who  it  is.  It  was  a  Jew,  not  a  Samaritan  ; 
and  I  don't  doubt  but  he  feels  very  sorry  for  him.  No 
doubt  he  said  to  himself:  "  Poor  fellow  :  it  was  a  pity  he 
took  this  way.  He  ought  to  have  gone  some  other  way 
down  to  Jericho  : "  or,  "  He  ought  not  to  have  been  out 
late  at  night.1*     Perhaps  he's  been  drinking  too  much. 

Poor  fellow,  I  pity  him  !  thought  the  man,  and  then 
passed  along  down  to  Jericho.  If  he  did  pity  him,  he 
didn't  have  compassion  enough  to  give  him  even  one  kind 
word.  He  might  have  just  given  him  something  to  rest 
his  dying  head  upon,  or  brought  him  just  one  drop  of 
water.  In  that  hot  country  no  doubt  the  man  was  crying 
for  water :  perhaps  that  was  the  first  cry  that  fell  upon 
his  ears,  "  Water  !  water  ! "  for  that  is  usually  the  first 
cry  of  a  wounded  man  ;  but  he  was  too  busy.  He  couldn't 
stop  even  to  give  him  a  drop  of  water.  He  must  attend 
to  his  professional  duties  :  so  on  he  went. 

The  next  man  who  came  along  was  a  Levite.  He 
was  a  deacon,  and  he  did  more  than  the  priest,  for  he 
did  stoop  to  look  at  the  poor  fellow.  He  gave  him  a  good 
look;  saw  he  was  a  Jew  ;  saw  he  couldn't  help  himself; 
saw  he  was  wounded  ;  heard  his  groans.  But  his  business 
was  also  very  important,  and  very  pressing.  Perhaps  he 
was  going  down  to  Jericho  to  help  the  priest.  Or,  maybe, 
he  was  going  the  other  way,  up  to  Jerusalem,  to  attend  to 
some  very  important  duties  at  the  temple.  The  wounded 
man  might  have  been  his  next-door  neighbor.  He  may 
have  said,  "  I  saw  him  in  the  temple  last  Sunday.  He  has 
always  done  all  he  could  to  keep  up  the  temple  service. 


Bible  Portraits — The  Good  Samaritan-.     211 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  help  him ;  but  I  have  not.  My  busi- 
ness is  pressing.  If  I  see  a  policeman  on  the  way  I  will 
send  him  back  to  look  after  him  ;  and  I  think  when  I  get 
to  Jerusalem  we  will  start  some  society  to  look  after  this 
sort  of  unfortunates." 

There  are  a  great  many  of  that  class  now.  They  are 
willing,  if  they  have  a  great  deal  of  money,  to  give  a  few 
dollars,  but  how  few  are  ready  to  take  off  their  coats  and 
go  right  into  the  vineyard  and  go  to  work  themselves  ! 

He  follows  in  the  footsteps  of  the  priest.  Perhaps  for 
some  ways  on  he  can  hear  the  groans  of  the  dying  man, 
and  then  he  begins  to  reason  with  himself  what  he  shall 
say  to  that  man's  wife.  If  he  should  see  her  at  the  temple 
on  Sabbath  she  might  ask  him  if  he  had  seen  her  husband. 
And  those  two  boys  of  his.  "  I  know  Johnny  and  Jimmy. 
They  have  been  watching  and  waiting  for  their  father  to 
come  home,  and  what  will  they  say  if  I  tell  them  I  met 
him  on  the  way  down  to  Jericho,  wounded  and  dying." 

But  he  goes  on.  I  don't  know  how  he  eased  his  con- 
science, but  on  he  went. 

Perhaps  he  hadn't  gone  but  a  short  distance  before  he 
met  the  Samaritan.  He  wouldn't  speak  to  that  Samar- 
itan :  he  wouldn't  bow  to  him  :  he  wouldn't  look  at  him  : 
he  wouldn't  even  allow  his  dog  to  follow  him.  He  would 
be  cast  out  of  the  synagogue  if  he  did. 

Now  look  at  that  Samaritan.  He  has  got  a  good  face  ; 
he  is  a  benevolent-looking  man..  I  can  see  him  coming 
along,  perhaps  whistling,  or  singing,  for  men  who  like  to 
do  good  deeds  are  generally  cheerful.  I  will  guarantee 
there  were  not  many  wrinkles  on  his  brow,  even  if  the 
Jew  did  despise  him. 


212      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

All  at  once  he  hears  the  groans  of  this  poor,  wounded 
man.  He  reins  up  his  horse  and  stops  to  listen.  He 
says  :  "  Yes,  I  hear  the  groans  of  a  man  ;  that^is  a  human 
voice."  He  dismounts,  and  seeks  the  man  till  he  finds 
him.  for  we  are  told  he  came  to  where  he  was.  We  are 
told  the  priest  and  Levite  came  upon  him  by  chance; 
but  the  good  Samaritan  came  on  puipose ;  he  represents 
your  Master  and  mine.  The  Son  of  God  didn't  come  into 
this  world  by  chance  ;  God  sent  him  into  this  world  :  he 
came  where  we  sinners  were. 

Some  people  tell  us — I  heard  some  one  not  long  ago — 
that  if  a  man  was  willing  to  meet  God  half  way  God 
would  meet  him  there,  and  he  would  be  blessed.  Sup- 
pose that  this  is  true,  how  was  this  poor  wounded,  dying 
man  going  to  be  saved  ?  Supposing  that  the  good  Sa- 
maritan had  rode  up  on  his  horse  and  said:  "Now  come, 
my  good  friend,  jump  up  here  and  I  will  take  you  to  an 
inn.  Come,  give  me  your  hand,  and  I  will  help  you." 
That  wouldn't  have  helped  him  any. 

"  He  came  to  ivlicre  lie  was."  Now,  if  there  are  a  hun- 
dred steps  to  be  taken  before  the  sinner  can  meet  God, 
and  God  should  take  ninety-nine,  and  say,  "  Sinner,  take 
one,  and  I  will  save  you,"  he  couldn't  be  saved.  Christ 
comes  to  where  the  sinner  is.  The  first  thing  this  good 
Samaritan  did  was  not  to  scold  him,  not  to  condemn  him 
for  coming  that  way.  He  didn't  begin  to  appeal  to  his 
prejudice  and  say  :  "  Here,  you  are  a  Jew  ;  you  are  a  man 
who  hates  us  Samaritans  ;  I  have  a  chance  now  to  heap 
coals  of  fire  on  your  head,  and  I  will  do  it."  He  didn't 
go  at  him  that  way  ;  never  said  any  thing  about  that  old 
quarrel  between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans.     He  first 


Bible  Portraits — Good  Samaritan.        213 

poured  oil  into  his  wounds.  That  is  what  the  Gospel 
does.  Then  he  gave  him  water,  and  then  a  little  wine, 
emblem  of  joy,)  to  revive  him,  and  I  can  imagine  he  tears 
off  one  of  the  sleeves  of  his  garment  to  bind  up  a  wound  ; 
and  then,  after  he  has  made  him  comfortable,  he  takes 
him)  up  in  his  own  strong  arms  and  puts  him  on  his  own 
beast.  That  is  our  Gospel,  that  is  what  Christ  does.  He 
takes  him  to  an  inn,  leaves  some  money,  and  says  if  the 
charge  is  more  he  will  pay  it. 

Then  Christ  puts  the  question  to  the  lawyer:  "Which 
one  is  neighbor  to  the  man  that  fell  among  the  thieves  ?" 

The  man  was  convicted  right  there.  He  had  his  eyes 
opened,  and  he  had  to  tell  the  truth,  and  reply :  "  He  that 
showed  mercy." 

Now,  my  friends,  have  we  got  the  spirit  of  the  good  Sa- 
maritan ?  Are  we  ready  to  go  out  and  lift  those  men  out 
of  the  gutter  ?  Have  we  found  out  who  our  neighbor  is  ? 
I  don't  know  but  I  overdraw  the  picture  when  I  say  this 
seems  to  be  a  good  deal  like  the  spirit  of  the  present  day. 
Suppose  a  Methodist  had  been  clown  there  trying  to  get 
that  poor  fellow  on  to  his  beast,  and  wasn't  quite  strong 
enough  to  lift  him  up,  and  a  Presbyterian  had  come  along, 
and  the  Methodist  says,  "  Help  me  get  him  on  the  beast." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  him  ?  What  Church 
is  he  going  to  join  ?"  asks  the  Presbyterian. 

"  I  haven't  thought  of  that,"  says  the  Methodist.  "  I 
am  going  to  save  him  first." 

"  I  wont  do  it.  I  shan't  help  him  till  I  know  what 
Church  he  is  going  to  join." 

An  Episcopal  brother  comes  along  and  wants  to  know 
if  he  has  been  confirmed. 


214      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

"  We  haven't  time  to  talk  about  that,"  says  the  good 
Samaritan,  "  let  us  save  him." 

"What  inn  are  you  going  to  take  him  to?"  asks  an- 
other: ''a  Congregationalist,  Methodist,  Baptist,  or  Epis- 
copal inn  ?" 

Isn't  that  the  spirit  of  our  age  ?  Haven't  we  a  good 
deal  of  that  spirit  in  the  Church — not  ready  to  help  a 
poor  man  out  of  the  gutter,  because  we  are  not  sure  he 
will  join  our  sect  ?  O  that  God  would  lift  us  above  that 
party  feeling  !  It  wont  take  us  long  to  find  out  who 
our  neighbor  is  if  we  read  the  Gospel  aright.  We  shall 
find  that  these  men  who  feel  bitter  against  us  and  talk 
against  us  are  our  neighbors  ;  and  let  us  go  and  try 
to  do  them  good.  Satan  has  deceived  them,  sin  has 
blinded  them,  and  they  don't  know  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  they  don't  know  the  love  of  God,  and  if  we  don't 
tell  them  who  will  ?  Now,  my  friends,  slia'n't  we  ask  God 
from  the  very  depths  of  our  hearts  to  show  us  who  our 
neighbor  is,  and  then  go  and  try  to  bring  him  to  God,  that 
he  may  walk  in  newness  of  life  ? 

I  am  coming  to  the  conclusion,  the  longer  I  live,  that 
what  this  poor  perishing  world  wants  is  Christians  who 
have  sympathy  for  them  fellow-men.  Men  want  compas- 
sion more  than  sermons.  "As  I  said  the  other  night,  there 
have  been  sermons  enough  preached  to  convert  them.  But 
it  is  not  some  fine-written  essay,  it  is  not  some  oratorical 
effort,  that  is  going  to  save  these  men  ;  we  want  to  get  out 
of  the  pulpit  and  off  these  high  platforms,  and  go  down 
among  them,  and  showtthem  we  love  them,  and  speak  to 
them  a  kind  word  here  and  there  ;  show  them  some  act 
of  kindness,  and  convince  them  that  we  have  a  love  for 


Bible  Portraits — Good  Samaritan.        215 

their  souls.  What  we  want  is  a  gospel  of  acts,  and  not  a 
gospel  of  resolves  and  creeds  and  dogmas.  We  have  had 
too  many  of  them.  We  want  men  who  are  going  to 
carry  out  the  principles  that  Christ  .-taught,  hunting  out 
the  fallen  and  degraded,  and  trying  to  lift  them  up  in  the 
name  of  our  Master.  But  if  we  haven't  sympathy  with 
them  we  can't  do  it.  A  sermon  may  be  keen,  it  may  be 
very  logical,  it  may  be  full  of  real  intellectual  power,  it 
may  be  as  sharp  and  beautiful  as  an  icicle,  and  just  as 
cold,  and  if  it  is,  it  never  will  reach  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  What  we  have  got  to  have  in  our  own  hearts  is 
sympathy  with  the  Master,  and  with  the  people  that  we 
want  to  reach  :  if  we  have  it,  it  wont  be  long  before  they 
find  it  out.  You  can't  reach  a  man  if  you  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  him. 

When  I  was  a  boy  and  left  home  for  the  first  time,  and 
went  thirteen  miles  away — I  often  think  that  I  never 
was  so  far  away  from  home  since — I  was  very  lonesome. 
I  had  gone  into  a  neighboring  town  to  spend  the  winter, 
and  to  do  chores,  as  w'e  call  it  in  New  England,  for  my 
board.  My  older  brother  had  gone  to  that  same  town  a 
year  before,  and  as  we  were  walking  down  the  street  I 
was  crying,  and  my  brother  was  trying  to  cheer  me  up. 
Presently  we  saw  an  old  man  corffing  down  the  street,  and 
my  brother  said:  "There,  there,  that  man  will  give  you  a 
cent." 

"  How  do  you  know  he  will  ?  " 

"  He  gives  every  new  boy  that  comes  to  town  a  cent. 
He  gave  me  one  when  I  came." 

I  looked  at  him  and  thought  he  was  the  best  looking 
man  I  ever  saw.     He  had  long  white  hair,  and  he  looked 


216      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

so  good  as  he  came  along.  But  I  thought  he  was  going 
by  me  without  saying  a  word.  I  think  it  would  have 
broken  my  heart  if  he  had,  for  my  brother  had  raised  my 
hopes  so  high.  When  he  got  right  opposite  he  said  :  "  You 
are  a  new  boy  in  town,  aren't  you  ? " 

My  brother  was  afraid  I  would  lose  the  cent,  so  he 
straightened  up,  and  said  :  "  Yes  ;  came  here  to-day." 

The  old  man  knew  my  brother  and  I  were  fatherless, 
and  so  he  took  my  hat  off  and  put  his  trembling  hand  on 
my  head,  and  said  I  had  a  Father  in  heaven  who  would 
care  for  me  :  and  then  he  gave  me  a  bran  new  cent. 

I  don't  know  what  has  become  of  the  cent,  but  I  can 
feel  the  pressure  of  the  old  man's  hand  on  my  head  to- 
night. It  has  followed  me  all  through  life.  Those  kind 
words  didn't  cost  him  much,  but  they  have  been  a  life-long 
blessing  to  me.  Let  us  go  to  those  who  are  fallen,  those 
that  have  been  taken  captive  by  Satan,  those  that  have 
fallen  among  thieves  and  have  been  stripped  and  wounded, 
and  let  us  tell  them  that  the  Son  of  God  will  have  compas- 
sion on  them,  and  that  he  will  save  them  if  they  will  only 
trust  him. 

May  the  God  of  heaven  give  us  the  Spirit  of  his  Son ! 


Bible  Portraits— Saul  of  Tarsus.        217 


SAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

The  next  Sunday  morning  after  that  on  which  Mr.  Moody  gave  the 
portrait  of  the  Prodigal  Son  there  was  a  very  large  attendance  at  the 
Tabernacle.  The  revival  meeting,  which  had  now  been  going  on  for 
several  weeks,  had  begun  to  attract  much  notice  throughout  the 
North-west.  On  this  occasion  an  excursion  from  Joliet  was  present, 
and  a  similar  excursion  from  Elgin  arrived  on  the  following  day.  Up 
to  this  time  the  average  attendance  at  the  meetings  was  estimated  in 
the  "  Chicago  Tribune  "  at  forty-five  thousand  people  per  week. 
Mr.  Moody  read  a  Scripture  lesson  from  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ;  and  after  a  solo  by  Mr.  Sankey,  entitled 
"  Almost  Persuaded,"  he  commenced  his  sermon  as  follows  : — 

¥OU  remember  that  last  Sunday  I  had  a  man  for  my 
text;  to-night  we  have  another,  the  man  of  whom  I 
have  been  reading. 

To  my  mind  the  case  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  is  a  great 
deal  harder  than  that  of  the  prodigal  son.  It  didn't 
take  long  to  convince  the  prodigal  of  his  duty  after  he 
had  spent  all  and  began  to  be  in  want.  Down  there 
among  the  swine  he  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder,  but 
up  among  the  Pharisees  in  Jerusalem  Saul  of  Tarsus 
was  at  the  top.  There  couldn't  be  a  more  hopeless  case. 
Even  Caiaphas,  or  Pilate,  might  be  converted  to  Christ 
easier  than  Saul.  He  was  a  mad  persecutor  of  the  Chris- 
tians, he  helped  in  the  murder  of  Stephen,  he  was  full  of 
zeal  and  fury,  and  also  full  of  religion.  If  any  one  had 
told  him  that  he  would  become  a  Christian  at  Damascus 
how  he  would  have  raved  about  it ! 

One  reason  why  he  was  so  mad  was,  that  when  the  dis- 
10 


2i8      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

ciples  had  been  scattered  from  Jerusalem  they  went  every- 
where preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  now 
the  news  had  come  up  that  some  of  them  had  gone  down 
to  Damascus  and  were  preaching  the  Gospel  there  ;  and 
then  Saul,  breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter,  goes 
to  the  chief  priests  and  gets  the  necessary  documents,  so 
that  he  may  bring  these  heretics,  bound,  to  Jerusalem. 

Now  this  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  an  upright  man.  He 
prayed  as  long  as  any  other  man  ;  he  knew  all  about  the 
law,  and  kept  it ;  he  was  blameless  as  touching  the  law ; 
and,  according  to  some  people  in  Chicago,  he  didn't  need 
to  be  converted  at  all :  he  was  good  enough  already.  True, 
he  hated  Jesus  Christ,  but  so  do  a  great  many  other  men 
who  are  honest  and  pay  their  debts,  and  are  thought  to  be 
good  enough  without  conversion. 

I  do  not  think  he  was  a  stranger  to  Christ.  It  was  but 
three  years  since  Christ's  ascension,  and  Saul  must  have 
seen  him  and  known  all  about  his  miracles,  his  death, 
and  his  resurrection.  He  was  probably  well  acquainted 
with  Nicodemus,  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  with 
Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who  was  a  prominent  man  ;  both  of 
whom  were  friends  of  Christ.  But  he  hates  Christ,  and 
all  who  believe  in  him. 

I  can  see  him  as  he  rides  out  of  the  city  starting  for 
Damascus,  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  miles  distant.  He 
rides  through  Samaria,  but  the  Jews  have  no  dealings  with 
the  Samaritans,  and  so  he  doesn't  speak  a  word  to  one  of 
them.  Now  he  comes  in  sight  of  the  beautiful  city,  so 
beautiful,  it  is  said,  that  Mohammed,  when  he  saw  it, 
would  not  look  at  it  a  second  time,  lest  it  should  win  his 
heart  from  the  city  of  the  prophet.     It  is  noon  ;    the  sun 


Bible  Portraits — Saul  of  Tarsus.        219 

shines  in  meridian  splendor  ;  but  just  then  there  is  a 
blinding  light  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  and  the 
whole  company,  in  amazement,  fall  from  their  frightened 
horses  and  lie  with  their  faces  to  the  dust. 

The  Son  of  God  just  drew  back  the  cloud  and  gave  one 
look,  and  the  brightness  of  his  face  was  so  dazzling  that 
they  could  not  bear  the  sight  for  an  instant.  Saul  caught 
one  glimpse  of  it  and  it  made  him  blind. 

Then  a  voice:  "Saul,  Saul!"  The  Son  of  God  knew 
him  by  name.  He  knows  every  sinner  by  name  ;  knows 
where  he  lives  just  as  well  as  he  knew  where  Saul  was 
when  he  sent  Ananias  to  his  lodging  in  Damascus.  I 
hope  the  Son  of  God  will  call  sinners  here  by  their  names, 
and  that  they  will  hear  his  voice  and  be  converted,  like 
Saul. 

And  now  this  question,  "  Why  persecutest  thou  me  ? " 
What  reason  could  Paul  give  for  persecuting  the  Son  of 
God? 

Some  people  may  think  it  was  hard  for  the  Christians 
in  Damascus  to  have  Saul  come  down  to  arrest  them, 
and  to  bring  them  bound  to  Jerusalem,  but  it  was  a  great 
deal  harder  for  Saul  than  for  any  one  else.  Christ  says 
to  him,  "  It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  pricks." 

In  that  country  they  used  a  long  stick,  with  a  bit  of  steel 
in  the  end  of  it,  for  driving  cattle  ;  and  sometimes,  when 
the  ox  was  contrary,  he  would  kick  back  against  the  piece 
of  steel,  striking  it  into  himself.  This  was  the  illustration 
which  Christ  used  to  show  this  stubborn  Pharisee  that  his 
way  was  a  hard  one. 

A  lady  in  the  inquiry  room,  the  other  night,  said  to  me, 
"  It  is  so  easy  to  sin,  and  so  hard  to  do  right."     Now  that 


220      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

is  the  same  as  saying  that  the  service  of  the  devil  is  an 
easy  service,  and  that  God's  service  is  a  hard  one  ;  but 
Christ  says,  "  My  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is  light." 
It  is  "  the  way  of  the  transgressor"  that  "  is  hard." 

Let  us  take  some  of  the  different  classes  of  the  devil's 
servants.  Take  a  harlot  :  is  her  life  an  easy  one  ?  It  is 
a  short  one  ;  only  an  average  of  seven  years  ;  with  shame 
and  sorrow  all  the  time.  What  memories  of  the  old  home, 
and  of  mother  and  sisters,  come  up  to  haunt  the  poor 
fallen  one !  Those  who  flatter  her  do  not  love  her,  and  at 
last  she  dies  in  loneliness,  and  perhaps  in  want,  and  is 
laid  in  a  nameless  grave. 

Take  the  drunkard  :  is  his  life  an  easy  one  ?  I  have  a 
man  in  my  mind  whom  I  tried  to  warn  from  the  beginning 
of  his  evil  ways  before  I  went  to  England.  He  was  only 
a  moderate  drinker  then,  but  now  he  is  a  sot  ;  his  wife 
has  died  of  a  broken  heart,  his  children  have  been  taken 
from  him  and  placed  where  he  may  never  see  them  again, 
and  he  is  wandering  about  the  streets  of  Chicago  a  lost 
and  ruined  man. 

Take  the  rumseller.  He  laughs  at  these  meetings, 
laughs  at  the  Bible  ;  says  there  is  no  hell.  I  have  a  man 
in  my  mind  whose  place  of  business  was  the  curse  of  a 
whole  community.  Fathers  and  mothers  used  to  beg  of 
him  not  to  sell  liquor  to  their  sons,  but  he  only  laughed  at 
them.  He  had  a  son  of  his  own,  of  whom  he  fairly  made 
an  idol,  and  that  wretched  young  man,  after  coming  to  be 
a  miserable  drunkard,  at  last  found  life  so  hateful  that  he 
took  a  pistol  and  blew  out  his  own  brains.  O,  rumseller, 
you  who  ruin  other  men's  sons,  there  is  a  time  coming 
when  you  will   reap  what  you  have  sowed  !     You  think 


Bible  Portraits — Saul  of  Tarsus.         221 

you  are  safe  from  the  law  of  man,  but  Cod,  the  Cod  of 
equity,  has  a  law  from  which  you  cannot  escape.  You 
ruin  the  sons  of  other  men,  and  your  sons  will  be  ruined, 
and  you,  like  this  rumseller,  will  have  a  miserable  end. 

Take  the  fashionable  smooth-tongued  libertine  ;  your 
time  is  coming  by  and  by.  If  a  woman  falls  she  is  thrust 
out  of  society,  while  these  oily-tongued  villainous  men  are 
praised  and  flattered.  But  there  is  a  God  who  will  judge 
you,  and  you  will  find  out  soon  enough  that  "  the  way 
of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 

The  other  night  I  read  a  letter  from  a  broken-hearted 
woman  asking  me  to  pray  for  her  husband,  who  had  com- 
mitted a  forgery,  and  had  fled  from  his  home  for  fear  of 
the  penalty  of  the  law.  Up  in  the  gallery  he  sat  while  I 
read  that  sorrowful  letter,  and  after  the  meeting  was  over 
he  came  to  me  and  confessed  his  sin.  I  never  pitied  a 
man  so  in  all  my  life.  We  prayed  together,  and  the  next 
night  he  came  again,  saying,  "  I  feel  as  if  Jesus  had  for- 
given my  sin  ;  but  I  am  not  my  own  ;  I  belong  to  the  law. 
I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  go  home  and  give  myself  up 
to  the  officers  of  justice,  and  I  suppose  they  will  send  me 
to  prison  for  ten  years.  And  now  wont  you  pray  for  my 
poor  family  whose  hearts  I  have  broken,  and  from  whom 
I  must  be  separated  by  my  punishment  and  disgrace  ?" 

Ah,  my  friends,  that  man  didn't  find  it  easy  to  fight 
against  God.  It  is  a  thousand  times  harder  to  serve  the 
devil  than  to  serve  the   Lord. 

Now  all  at  once  we  find  a  great  change  coming  over  this 
man  Saul.  A  few  minutes  before  he  was  breathing  out 
threatenings  and  slaughter,  ami  pushing  on  to  Damascus  to 
hunt  out  and  punish  the  followers  of  the  Galilean  prophet  ; 


222      Moody:  his  Works — Work — Workers. 

but  now,  after  this  great  light  has  shined  round  about  him, 
he  falls  down  to  the  ground,  and  with  a  very  humble  voice 
he  says,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  " 

Any  of  you  who  don't  believe  in  sudden  conversions 
had  better  read  this  ninth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  and  find  out  how  long  it  took  to  convert  Saul  of 
Tarsus. 

Now  he  rises  from  the  earth  and  goes  on  his  journey, 
but  for  an  altogether  different  purpose.  I  suppose  that 
Ananias  was  one  of  the  very  men  whom  he  was  going  to 
hunt  out  and  bring  to  punishment ;  now,  by  the  com- 
mandment of  the  Lord,  whom  he  had  so  terribly  hated  but 
half  an  hour  ago,  he  pushes  on  for  Damascus,  and  that 
same  Ananias  is  sent  to  open  his  eyes.  It  may  be  Ananias 
was  rather  doubtful  about  going  to  this  man — perhaps  he 
didn't  believe  in  sudden  conversions  either — but  the  Lord 
had  told  him  to  go,  and  when  he  went  he  found  Saul  had 
become  an  inquirer. 

What  a  curious  experience  it  must  have  been  for  that 
raging  persecutor,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  to  go  staggering  along 
in  his  blindness,  led  like  a  little  child  to  Damascus.  Now 
Ananias  speaks  to  this  terrible  man  and  says,  "  Brother 
Saul,  the  Lord,  even  Jesus,  that  appeared  unto  thee  in  the 
way  as  thou  earnest,  hath  sent  me,  that  thou  mightest  re- 
ceive thy  sight,  and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and 
immediately  there  fell  from  his  eyes  as  it  had  been  scales, 
and  he  received  sight  forthwith  ;  and  straightway,  the 
account  goes  on  to  tell  us,  he  preached  Chiist  in  the 
synagogues,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God. 

How  amazed  those  Damascus  Christians  must  have 
been  to  hear  this  man  preaching  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and 


Bible  Portraits — Saul  of  Tarsus.         223 

confounding  the  Jews  who  did  not  believe  in  Jesus.  I  sup- 
pose they  had  received  letters  from  their  brethren  in  Jeru- 
salem telling  them  to  look  out,  for  the  terrible  Saul  of 
Tarsus  was  coming  down  to  make  trouble  for  them.  Per- 
haps they  had  some  prayer-meetings  while  he  was  on 
the  road,  to  ask  the  Lord  to  save  them  from  the  hands  of 
this  terrible  persecutor  of  the  Church,  and  when  he  comes, 
behold  he  is  on  their  side  ! 

Some  time  afterward  Saul  goes  up  to  Jerusalem.  At 
first  the  brethren  there  didn't  have  any  faith  in  him,  but 
after  awhile  Barnabas  takes  him  and  introduces  him,  and 
tells  them  all  about  how  he  has  been  converted  ;  and  after 
awhile  they  receive  him  as  one  of  their  company,  and 
from  this  time  he  is  one  of  the  very  foremost  men  in  de- 
fending the  Church  he  used  to  despise.  Before  long  we 
hear  of  him  suffering  persecution  for  the  sake  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  He  starts  out  on  a  preaching  tour,  and  pretty 
soon  we  hear  of  him  in  the  Philippian  jail. 

Now  what  a  terrible  commotion  there  would  be  if  some 
one  of  the  Christians  of  these  days  should  be  scourged 
and  thiust  into  prison  for  being  a  disciple  of  the  Lord 
Jesus ! 

O,  Saul,  you  don't  find  it  so  easy  to  preach  the  Gospel 
after  all.  Now  see  the  trouble  you  are  in.  What  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it  ? 

"Do?  This  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  ...  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize 
of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

They  take  him  and  stone  him,  and  leave  him  for  dead  ; 
but  after  the  mob  has  all  gone  away,  I  seem  to  see  this 
Paul  coming  to  himself,  sitting  up  and  rubbing  his  eyes  ; 


224      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

after  a  little  he  realizes  the  situation,  and  stands  up  and 
leans  against  the  city  wall,  and  looks  about  him. 

Now,  Paul,  haven't  you  had  enough  of  it  ?  This  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  is  no  easy  matter  ;  what  are  you  going  to 
do  now  ? 

"  Do  ?"  says  the  man,  with  the  blood  running  down  all 
over  his  face,  "This  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  ...  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the 
prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Not  long  afterward  the  Jews  get  hold  of  him  and  scourge 
him. 

Do  you  know  what  that  Roman  scourge  was  ?  Well,  I 
will  tell  you.  The  Roman  scourge  was  made  by  braiding 
little  pieces  of  sharp  steel  in  the  lash  of  a  whip,  and  this 
they  used  on  the  bare  back. 

Poor  man  !  I  seem  to  see  him  standing  there  bending 
over  to  receive  the  terrible  scourge.  A  stout  Roman 
soldier  stands  over  him,  and  swings  the  steel-braided  lash, 
bringing  it  down  on  his  quivering  flesh. 

What  an  outcry  there  would  be  if  any  of  us  received 
one  such  stroke  as  that  ;  but  Paul  receives  forty  such 
stripes,  save  one,  and  when  they  lead  him  away  the  little 
man  is  nearly  dead  with  pain  and  loss  of  blood. 

Ah,  Paul,  this  is  hard  work,  preaching  the  Gospel ! 
What  are  you  going  to  do  now  ? 

"  Do  ?  "  "  This  one  thing  I  do  :  forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  ...  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize 
of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

There  is  a  man  for  you  !  Stoning,  and  scourgings,  and 
prisons,  were  all  the  same  to  him,  so  that  he  might  win 
Christ. 


Bible  Portraits — ■ Saul  oi  Tarsus.         225 

The  last  we  see  of  him  is  in  that  prison  at  Rome.  In  a 
few  days  he  is  to  be  led  out  to  execution.  Nero  has  con- 
demned him  to  death.  So  he  takes  a  piece  of  paper  and 
writes  a  letter  to  his  son  Timothy  : — 

"  Good-bye,  Timothy.  Keep  on  preaching  ;  preach  the 
word  ;  hold  fast  that  whereunto  thou  hast  attained.  As 
for  me,  I  have  finished  my  course;  I  have  kept  the  faith  ; 
henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteous- 
ness, which  the  Lord  shall  give  me  in  that  daw" 

In  a  few  days  afterward  they  take  him  out  to  the  place 
of  execution  ;  the  ax  falls  on  his  neck,  and  his  head  rolls 
down  into  the  dust.  But  there  is  one  of  the  Lord's  chari- 
ots waiting  for  his  soul ;  and  now  that  he  is  delivered  from 
his  poor  little  aching  body,  he  leaps  into  it  and  sweeps 
upward  through  the  sky,  and  into  the  gates  of  the  New 
Jerusalem. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  who  know  him  there, 
and  through  all  these  eighteen  hundred  years  there  are 
souls  coming  up  to  glory  and  giving  him  new  joy  over  the 
work  which  he  did  for  Christ. 

"  Paul,  I  thank  you  for  that  Epistle  to  the  Romans," 
says  one  ;  "it  was  the  means  of  bringing  me  to  Christ." 

"  Paul,  I  thank  you  for  that  sermon  on  Mars'  Hill,"  says 
another  ;  "  that  saved  me  from  my  worship  of  the  unknown 
God." 

'•  Paul,  I  thank  you  f  >r  that  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  ; 

it  gave  me  victory  over  the  grave." 

•  "Paul,  I  thank  you  for  that  Epistle  to  the  Thessaloni- 

ans  ;  it  showed  me  that  the  Lord  who  was  gone  away 

would  sometime  come  back  again." 

Ah,  this  Saul  of  Tarsus,  this  preacher  of  righteousness, 
10* 


226       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

so  often  rejected,  is  a  great  man  in  heaven  now.  Talk 
about  Alexander  shaking  the  world  with  his  armies  :  this 
little  tent-maker  of  Tarsus  shook  the  world  without  any 
armies. 

It  was  a  wise  thing  for  him  to  count  all  things  but 
loss  for  the  excellency  of  Christ  Jesus  his  Lord.  Didn't 
he  say  that  chastening  afterward  yieldeth  the  peace- 
able fruits  of  righteousness  unto  them  that  are  exercised 
thereby  ?  Didn't  he  tell  us  to  rejoice  evermore,  and,  like 
David,  do  you  not  think  he  was  satisfied  when  he  awoke 
in  the  likeness  of  his  Lord? 


Bible  Portraits — Some  Blind  Men.        227 


SOME    BLIND    MEN. 


1 


JTlN  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Luke  we  have  this  story 
£■->  As  Christ  was  coming  into  Jericho,  there  was  a  poor 
blind  man  sitting  by  the  way-side  begging.  I  don't 
know  how  long  he  had  been  blind,  but  he  is  poor  enough, 
and  miserable  enough.  He  has  come  to  be  a  beggar,  and 
I  suppose  he  had  a  pretty  hard  time  of  it. 

One  morning  one  of  his  neighbors  comes  along  and 
says,  "Good  morning,  Bartimeus;  I  have  good  news 
for  you." 

"  What  is  it?"  says  the  beggar. 

"  There  is  a  man  of  Israel  who  can  give  you  sight." 

"O  no !"  says  the  blind  beggar;  "there  is  no  chance 
of  my  ever  receiving  my  sight.  I  shall  never  see.  In 
fact,  I  never  saw  the  mother  who  gave  me  birth  ;  I  never 
saw  the  wife  of  my  bosom  ;  I  never  saw  my  own  children. 
I  never  saw  in  this  world,  but  I  expect  to  see  in  the 
world  to  come." 

"Let  me  tell  you,"  says  the  neighbor,  "  I  have  just 
come  down  from  Jerusalem,  where  I  saw  that  carpenter, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  had  opened  the  eyes  of  a  man 
{hat  was  born  blind,  and  I  never  saw  a  man  with  better 
sight.     He  doesn't  even  have  to  use  glasses." 

Then  hope  rises  for  the  first  time  in  this  poor  man's 
heart,  and  he  says, 

"  Tell  me  how  the  man  got  his  sight." 

"  O,"  says  the  other,  "Jesus  first  spat  on  the  ground 


228      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  made  clay,  and  put  it  on  his  eyes,  and  then  he  told 
him  to  wash  his  eyes  in  the  pool  of  Siloam,  and  he  would 
receive  his  sight ;  and  sure  enough,  he  came  back  with 
two  good  eyes.  More  than  that,  Bartimeus,  he  doesn't 
charge  any  thing ;  you  have  no  fee  to  pay!  You  just  tell 
him  what  you  want,  and  you  get  it  without  money  and 
without  price." 

Just  then  he  hears  the  footsteps  of  a  coming  multitude, 
and  inquires  who  is  passing.  Somebody  tells  him  it  is 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  passing  by.  The  moment  he  hears 
that  it  is  Jesus  of  Nazareth  he  begins  to  cry  out  at  the 
top  of  his  voice, — 

"  Jesus,  thou  Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me  !  " 

Some  of  those  who  went  before — perhaps  Peter  was 
one  of  them — rebuked  him,  thinking  the  Master  was  going 
up  to  Jerusalem  to  be  crowned  King,  and  didn't  want  to 
be  distracted.  They  never  knew  the  Son  of  God  when 
he  was  here.  He  would  hush  every  harp  in  heaven  to 
hear  a  sinner  pray  ;  no  music  would  delight  him  so  much. 

But  the  blind  man  still  lifted  up  his  voice,  and  cried 
louder,  "  Thou  Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me !  "  and 
the  prayer  reached  the  ears  of  the  Son  of  God,  as  prayer 
always  will. 

When  Jesus  heard  the  blind  beggar  he  commanded 
him  to  be  brought.  So  they  ran  to  him,  and  said,  "  Be 
of  good  comfort ;  rise,  he  calleth  thee." 

When  Jesus  saw  him  he  said,  "What  wilt  thou  that  I 
shall  do  unto  thee?  " 

"  Lord,  that  I  may  receive  'my  sight." 

"  Receive  thy  sight." 

And  now  the  beggar  follows  with  the  crowd,  glorifying 


Bible  Portraits — Some  Blind  Men.        229 

God.  I  can  imagine  he  sang  as  sweetly  as  Mr.  Sankey ; 
no  one  sang  sweeter  than  he  when  he  shouted,  "  Hosanna 
to  the  Son  of  David  !  " 

I  can  imagine  when  lie  gets  into  the  city  he  says  to 
himself,  "  I  will  go  down  and  see  Mrs.  Bartimeus." 
After  all  these  years  of  blindness  what  a  joy  it  must 
have  been  to  be  able  to  see  his  wife  and  children  ! 


We  do  not  hear  any  thing  about  Bartimeus  afterward  ; 
but  here  is  another  blind  man  who  was  not  afraid  to  con- 
fess Christ  when  it  was  very  dangerous  to  do  so.  Christ 
had  given  him  his  sight,  and  he  had  given  Christ  his 
heart.  This  man  was  born  blind  ;  but  what  I  want  to 
call  your  attention  to  is  his  confession.  They  were  hav- 
ing a  controversy  over  him,  and  some  people  said,  "This 
is  the  very  man  who  was  born  blind,  whose  eyes  the 
Prophet  of  Nazareth  has  opened."  Others  said,  "This 
is  not  the  same  man  at  all,  only  somebody  who  looks 
like  him." 

But  he  said,  "  I  am  he." 

Now  if  he  had  been  like  a  good  many  people  he  would 
have  said  to  himself:  "There  is  a  great  storm  brewing. 
The  chief  men  of  the  city  are  divided  about  this  man. 
Some  of  them  think  he  is  a  prophet,  and  some  say  he 
is  an  impostor;  so  I  guess  I  had  better  keep  still.  I 
have  got  my  sight,  anyhow  ;  now  I  think  I'll  go  off 
home  and  keep  out  of  this  excitement."  But  he  didn't 
talk  that  way  at  all.      Me  says  right  out,  "  I  am  he." 

In  the  first  place,  with  his  heart  he  had  believed  unto 
righteousness,  and  now  with  his  mouth  he  makes  con- 


230      Moonv :  ins  Words — Work— Workers. 

fession  unto  salvation.  He  was  not  going  to  hold  his 
peace.  His  eyes  had  been  opened,  and  he  now  begins  to 
tell  his  experience. 

Experience :  that  is  what  makes  our  Friday  noon 
meetings  so  interesting.  Ah !  my  friends,  the  world 
can't  get  over  the  facts  of  experience.  All  the  un- 
believers in  the  world  can't  get  over  such  a  fact  as  the 
conversion  of  Saul. 

Some  one  once  wrote  an  article  against  the  work  of  a 
certain  revivalist,  and  one  of  his  friends  said  to  him, 
"  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  That  is  a  strong 
argument  against  you." 

"  I  shall  do  nothing  at  all,"  was  his  reply.  "  Let  the 
work  speak  for  itself." 

Notice  now  that  this  man  at  once  obeyed  the  Master, 
who  had  anointed  his  eyes  with  clay — enough  to  spoil  his 
sight  if  it  had  been  good — and  then  told  him  to  go  and 
wash.  The  man  might  have  made  a  great  many  objec- 
tions. But  no ;  he  goes  right  away  and  does  just  as  he 
is  bid,  and  when  he  has  done  it  he  gets  his  sight. 

Somebody  might  say,  "  Why  couldn't  Christ  have  saved 
him  all  that  trouble,  and  have  spoken  the  word,  and 
opened  his  eyes  on  the  spot?"  Well,  he  could.  He  did 
in  another  place.  But,  my  friends,  God  never  repeats 
himself.  He  never  made  two  men  just  alike,  or  con- 
verted two  men  just  alike.  That  is  where  a  great  many 
people  blunder,  looking  for  God  to  give  them  somebody 
else's  experience. 

Here  in  the  twelfth  verse  they  ask,  "Where  is  he?" 
"  I  don't  know,"  answers  the  man.  You  see  he  don't  try 
to  tell  more  than  he  knows.     So,  young  converts,  don't 


Bible  Portraits — Some  Blind  Men.        231 

you  try  to  tell  more  than  you  know.  Don't  get  puffed 
up  with  conceit  and  spiritual  pride  over  what  the  Lord 
has  done  for  you. 

Again,  they  ask  him  how  he  got  his  sight,  and  he  tells 
his  experience  over  again.  Don't  be  afraid  to  tell  your 
experience  so  long  as  God  blesses  any  body  by  it. 

When  they  ask  him  what  he  thinks  of  Jesus, 

"  He  is  a  prophet,"  he  answers. 

Here  are  the  three  degrees  of  this  man's  progress. 
First,  he  confesses  himself  a  saved  man.  Second,  he 
tells  what  Christ  has  done  for  him  ;  and,  third,  having 
got  done  talking  about  himself,  he  begins  to  talk  about 
the  Master,  and  to  preach  him  as  a  prophet.  So  with 
you.  Get  done  talking  about  yourselves  as  quick  as  you 
can,  and  begin  to  talk  about  Christ. 

I  don't  like  the  parents  of  this  man.  They  knew  well 
enough  who  had  opened  the  blind  eyes  of  their  son  ;  he 
had  told  them  himself;  but  they  were  moral  cowards. 
They  were  afraid  they  would  be  put  out  of  the  synagogue 
if  they  confessed  who  it  was  that  had  brought  them  so 
great  a  blessing,  and  it  was  a  terrible  thing  to  be  put  out 
of  the  synagogue.  In  these  days,  if  a  man  is  put  out  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  they  may  take  him  into  the 
Methodist  Church,  and  when  the  Methodists  turn  him 
out  he  can  go  and  join  the  Episcopalians ;  but  they 
didn't  have  any  Presbyterians,  and  Methodists,  and  Epis- 
copalians, and  Congregationalists,  and  Baptists  in  those 
days.  There  was  only  one  Church,  and  it  was  a  terrible 
thing  to  be  put  out  of  that.  So  his  parents  compromised 
the  matter  by  turning  it  all  over  to  their  son. 

"  He  is  of  age  ;  ask  him." 


232      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Again  they  came  back  to  the  man  himself,  and  he  is 
ready  to  repeat  the  story,  if  they  will  only  believe  in 
Christ.  Don't  you  see?  He  has  taken  another  step, 
and  is  trying  to  persuade  these  scribes  and  Pharisees  to 
believe  on  the  prophet  who  has  given  him  his  sight. 

He  is  full  of  faith.  I  like  to  have  some  young  con- 
verts round  me.  They  are  so  full  of  faith,  they  believe 
in  all  sorts  of  things  which  other  people  think  are  almost 
impossible.     Their  faith  leaps  over  all  mountains. 

He  presses  those  proud  Pharisees  a  little  too  hard,  and 
they  get  mad  at  him,  just  as  people  do  now  when  the 
word  of  God  is  pushed  home  a  little  too  sharply,  and 
they  say,  "  We  know  that  God  spake  by  Moses,  but  as 
for  this  fellow,  we  know  not  whence  he  is.' 

The  man  answered,  "  Why  herein  is  a  marvelous  thing, 
that  ye  know  not  from  whence  he  is,  and  yet  he  hath 
opened  mine  eyes.  Now  we  know  that  God  heareth  not 
sinners:  but  if  any  man  be  a  worshiper  of  God,  and 
doeth  his  will,  him  he  heareth."  No  professor  in  a  theo- 
logical seminary  could  have  made  a  better  argument. 

This  was  a  kind  of  argument  that  the  Pharisees  couldn't 
answer,  but  there  was  one  thing  they  could  do,  they 
could  cast  him  out  of  the  synagogue  ;  and  where  did 
they  cast  him  ?  Why,  right  into  the  arms  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  himself.  It  was  not  long  before  Christ  heard  that 
they  had  cast  him  out  of  the  synagogue,  and  he  searched 
him  out,  and  spoke  so  kindly  to  him  that  I  am  sure 
his  words  must  have  been  a  comfort  to  him  all  the 
days  of  his  life;  he  could  afford  to  be  cast  out  of  that 
synagogue  if  he  were  only  in  favor  with  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  had  t«vo  good  eyes  into  the  bargain. 


Bible  Portraits— Some  Bund  Men.       233 

O  may  God  help  us  to  confess  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  has  opened  our  blind  eyes  and  made  us  to  sec  his 
face,  and  to  read  the  mystery  of  his  word  ;  and  who  has 
opened  up  to  the  eyes  of  our  faith  the  glories  of  eternal 
life! 


HOW  TO  CURE  A  BLIND  MAN. 

[The  following  charming  picture  is  from  an  address  at  the  Taber- 
nacle, by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tiffany,  on  a  Monday  evening  when  Mr. 
Moody  was  absent.  The  lesson,  and  the  pleasant  manner  of  teaching 
it,  entitle  the  doctor  to  a  place  in  this  record.  After  referring  to  cer- 
tain sectarian  divisions  which  divide  the  people  of  God,  and  prevent 
some  of  them  from  enjoying-,  or  even  believing  in,  the  great  work  of 
revival  which  was  then  going  on  under  the  labors  of  Messrs.  Moody 
and  Sankey,  the  doctor  read  the  account  of  the  blind  beggar,  Bar- 
timeus,  to  whom  Jesus  gave  sight,  closing  with  these  words:  "  And 
Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  What  wilt  thou  that  I  should  do 
unto  thee?  The  blind  man  said  unto  him,  Lord,  that  I  might  receive 
my  sight.  And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Go  thy  way  ;  thy  faith  hath 
made  thee  whole.  And  immediately  he  received  his  sight,  and  fol- 
lowed Jesus  in  the  way.''] 

Now,  let  us  go  with  him  in  imagination  as  he  joins 
the  crowd  which  is  following  Jesus,  till  he  meets  with  a 
man  whom  he  somehow  recognizes  as  one  of  those  men- 
tioned in  the  ninth  of  Matthew,  of  whom  it  is  said, 
"  Then  touched  he  their  eyes,  saying,  According  to  your 
faith  be  it  unto  you.     And  their  eyes  were  opened." 

He  salutes  him  and  says,  "Are  you  not  one  of  those 
blind  men  I  used  to  know  down  there  in  Galilee?" 

"  Yes,"  says  the  man,  "  but  I  am  not  blind  any  more." 

"Why,  how  did  you  get  your  sight?  " 

"  O,  a  man  that  is  called  Jesus  opened  my  eyes !  " 

"How  did  he  do  it?" 

So   the    man    relates  his   experience  ;    but    Bartimeus 


234      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

doesn't  quite  like  it,  for  it  does  not  agree  with  his  own  ; 
and  there  is  danger  of  quite  a  controversy  arising  between 
them,  because  Christ  touched  the  eyes  of  one  man  and 
cured  the  other  with  a  word.  By  and  by  they  fall  in  with 
another  blind  man,  the  one  mentioned  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  Mark,  and  they  ask  him  how  it  was  that  he 
received  his  sight. 

"He  took  me  by  the  hand " 

"  That's  right,"  says  the  second  blind  man  ;  "  the  proper 
way  to  be  cured  is  to  have  Christ  touch  you  ;  that  is  the 
way  he  cured  me.  I  don't  think  much  of  a  cure  that  is 
done  with  nothing  but  a  word." 

"  And  he  spit  on  my  eyes,  and  put  his  hands  upon 

me,  and  asked  n\e  if  I  saw  aught,  and  I  told  him  I 
could  see  men  as  trees,  walking.  Then  he  put  his  hands 
on  my  eyes  again,  and  I  saw  every  man  clearly." 

"  Well,  well,"  says  Bartimeus,  "  that  is  a  curious  way 
to  cure  a  blind  man.  I  could  see  all  at  once.  There 
must  be  some  mistake  about  your  case.  I  am  afraid 
your  sight  wont  last  very  long." 

They  argue  and  contend  over  the  proper  way  to  be 
cured,  till  at  last  they  come  up  with  the  man  who  was 
born  blind,  and  agree  to  leave  it  to  him.  So  he  begins 
to  relate  his  experience  : — 

"  Jesus,  the  great  prophet  of  Nazareth,  was  passing  by 
one  day  and  saw  me.  His  disciples  pointed  me  out  to 
him,  and  he  stopped  and  said — " 

"  There,  I  told  you  that  was  the  way  to  be  cured," 
says  Bartimeus.     "He  only  needs  to  say  the  word." 

"  Now  what  did  he  say?  " 

"  He  said,    '  Neither  hath   this   man   sinned,   nor   his 


Bible  Portraits — Some  Blind  Men.       235 

parents:  but  that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made 
manifest  in  him.'  And  then,  when  he  had  thus  spoken, 
he  spat " 

"There,  I  knew  it,"  says  the  third  blind  man.  "  To  be 
sure  that  is  the  proper  way  to  be  cured  of  blindness." 

"  On  the  ground,"  continues  the  fourth  blind  man, 

"  and  made  clay  of  the  spittle,  and  told  me  to  go  wash  in 
the  pool  of  Siloam." 

"  O,  that  is  all  wrong!"  the  three  cry  out  together. 
"  There  oughtn't  to  be  any  washing  in  the  business  ;" 
and  they  are  further  from  an  agreement  than  ever. 

Now,  I  have  seen  Christians  engaged  in  just  as  sensible 
disputes  as  that  we  have  imagined  among  these  four 
blind  men,  everyone  of  whom  was  cured  in  a  different 
way.  What  we  want  is  sight,  no  matter  how  we  get 
it.  What  we  want  is  to  come  to  Christ,  no  matter 
how  we  come.  lie  who  has  the  light  that  Christ  gives, 
so  that  he  knows  a  child  of  God  when  he  sees  him, 
and  can  see  to  work  the  works  of  Christ — he  who  has 
the  new  life  in  his  ownconsciousiuss.  and  gives  it  out  to 
others — he  is  the  man  who  can  go  on  his  way  th  ough 
the  world  rejoicing. 

I  trust  no  Christian  will  be  so  unwise  as  to  find  fault 
with  an_\-  means  by  which  sinners  are  leally  saved,  and 
that  nothing  in  the  methods  of  this  revival  will  keep  any 
one  from  seeking  Christ. 

And  as  for  us,  who  have  the  sight  which  Jesus  gives, 
let  us  rejoice  that  we  have  met  him,  and  that,  in  his  own 
way,  he  has  made  himself  the  joy  of  our  hearts  and  the 
light  of  our  eyes. 


236     Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


THE    LAME    MAN    HEALED. 

AT  one  of  the  Noonday  Meetings  the  Scripture  lesson  was  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  John,  in  his  exposition  of  which  Mr.  Moody 
gave  the  following  account  of  the  healing  of  the  lame  man  at  the 
pool  of  Bethesda. 

Tl  WAS  going  to  call  this  fifth  chapter  of  John  the 
4l  wonderful  chapter,  but  all  the  chapters  of  this  Gospel 
are  wonderful.  Here  was  a  poor  lame  man,  down  by  the 
pool  of  Bethesda,  who  had  suffered  an  infirmity  for 
thirty-eight  years.  We  think  it  is  bad  enough  to  be 
sick  thirty-eight  hours,  and  if  any  body  is  sick  thirty- 
eight  days,  that  is  a  terrible  thing. 

His  friends  used  to  carry  him  about  at  first,  but  by 
and  by  they  got  tired  of  it,  and  left  him  to  get  along 
the  best  way  he  could.  There  he  is  down  by  the  pool, 
among  a  great  number  of  impotent  folks,  helpless  and 
friendless;  he  can't  get  into  the  pool  himself,  and  there 
is  no  one  to  put  him  in.  He  has  got  done  trying,  he 
lias  got  to  the  end  of  himself;  and  this  is  the  very  man 
that  Christ  is  most  interested  in. 

That  is  always  the  way  with  him  ;  you'll  always  find 
him  where  he  is  the  most  needed ;  but  that  isn't  the 
way  with  us.  If  we  were  only  like  the  Master  we  should 
oftener  be  found  in  hospitals,  prisons,  and  at  the  bedside 
of  the  sick  and  dying. 

One  of  the  Lord's  servants  once  carried  a  bouquet  to 
a  man  in  a  hospital.     He   took  the   flowers  in   his  hand, 


Bible  Portraits— Lame  Man  Healed.      237 

smelt  of  them,  and  seemed  to  be  quite  delighted  with 
their  beauty  and  fragrance.  Then  he  said  to  the  lady 
who  brought  them,  "  If  I  had  only  known  how  much 
good  a  bunch  of  flowers  would  do  a  poor  sick  man  I 
would  have  carried  a  good  many  to  the  hospitals  myself." 

I  remember  reading  a  story  about  a  man  who  broke 
his  leg,  but  was  laid  up  in  his  own  house.  One  da)-  they 
brought  him  the  first  cluster  of  grapes  that  had  ripened 
in  his  own  garden.  He  took  them  with  great  delight, 
looked  at  them,  smcllcd  them,  and  then  said  :  "  It  seems 
too  bad  for  me  to  cat  these,  they  arc  so  nice;  I  guess 
you  had  better  take  them  over  to  my  neighbor,  who  is 
sick  with  the  fever;  they  will  do  him  more  good  than 
they  will  me."  When  his  neighbor  got  them  he  was 
greatly  pleased,  but  he  happened  to  think  of  a  third  man 
who  was  sicker  than  he  was,  so  he  sent  them  over  to  him. 
The  third  man  was  very  grateful,  took  a  good  look  anil 
a  good  smell  of  them,  and  then  said  to  one  of  the  serv- 
ants, "Here,  take  these  grapes,  with  my  compliments, 
and  carry  them  to  Neighbor  So-and-so.  Poor  fellow, 
he  has  broken  his  leg,  and  is  shut  up  in  his  house;  I 
think  he  needs  the  grapes  more  than  I."  So  the  grapes 
came  back  to  the  first  man  again,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
the\-  tasted  a  great  deal  sweeter  for  all  the  love  and 
gladness  they  had  called  forth  as  they  passed  round  the 
neighborhood. 

There  is  an  old  tradition  about  two  great  mountains, 
one  of  Sorrow,  the  other  of  Joy ;  and  if  any  body  wants 
to  sleep  well  at  night  he  has  only  to  dig  away  a  little  ol 
the  mountain  of  Sorrow,  or  add  a  little  to  the  moun- 
tain of  Joy. 


238      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Now,  to  come  back  to  this  chapter.  There  were  three 
classes  of  people  in  this  multitude  :  there  were  the  blind, 
and  the  halt,  and  the  withered.  I  remember  down  in 
the  army  after  a  battle  the  surgeons  used  to  take  care  of 
the  worst  cases  first ;  just  so  it  was  with  Christ.  I  sup- 
pose this  man  was  the  very  worst  case  among  them,  so 
the  Lord  picks  him  out  from  all  the  rest,  and  says  to 
him  "  Wilt  thou  be  made  whole  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  says  the  man,  "  I  would  like  to  be  made  whole, 
but  I  have  nobody  to  help  me  into  the  pool ;  nobody 
takes  notice  of  me  any  more,  and  I  have  about  given  up 
all  hope  of  ever  being  cured.  Every  body  pushes  me 
back,  and  gets  down  before  me,  and  I  suppose  I  shall  have 
to  be  a  poor,  withered-up  man  all  the  days  of  my  life." 

Jesus  saith  unto  him,  "Rise!  take  up  thy  bed,  and 
walk."  He  don't  tell  him  to  do  so  and  so,  and  he  will 
get  well  by  degrees,  but  speaks  the  word  that  is  to  cure 
him  all  at  once. 

It  doesn't  take  God  a  great  while  to  save  a  man  when 
he  sets  about  it.  But  there  are  a  good  many  people  yet 
who  can't  believe  in  sudden  conversions. 

Now,  if  he  had  been  a  Chicago  man  he  would  have 
argued  this  way :  "  What  is  the  use  of  telling  me  to  rise? 
I  couldn't  stand  up  a  minute  if  I  should  try.  He  tells 
me  to  walk,  and  I  haven't  walked  a  step  for  thirty-eight 
years.  What  folly  to  tell  me  to  walk,  to  say  nothing 
about  carrying  my  bed."  But  the  man  doesn't  talk  that 
way.  When  the  Lord  tells  him  to  rise  he  starts  to  rise, 
and  up  he  comes.  Then  he  seizes  that  old  couch  that 
he  has  lain  upon  so  long,  swings  it  over  his  shoulder — 
and  walks. 


Bible  Portraits — Lame  Man  Healed.       239 

My  friends,  God  don't  tell  a  man  to  do  a  thing  that  is 
impossible,  and  then  punish  him  to  all  eternity  because 
he  didn't  do  it.  With  the  command  always  comes  the 
help  to  obey. 

[Mr.  Moody  concluded  his  comments  on  this  portion 
of  Scripture  as  follows  :] 

Now  I  want  to  read  to  you  what  is  to  me  the  sweetest 
verse  in  the  whole  Bible.  I  sometimes  call  it  my  plat- 
form. I  got  both  feet  on  it  twenty-one  years  ago,  and  I 
have  been  standing  on  it  ever  since.  It  is  in  this  fifth 
chapter  of  John  and  the  twenty-fourth  verse:  "Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you," — whenever  the  Lord  begins  that 
way  you  may  know  something  is  coming, — "  He  that 
heareth  my  word,  and  believeth  on  him  that  sent  me, 
hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condemna- 
tion ;  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life." 

In  the  verse  before  it  we  read  about  honoring  the  Son 
as  we  do  the  Father.  Don't  you  know  that  the  best  wax- 
to  please  a  father  is  to  speak  well  of  his  son?  Just  so 
the  way  to  please  God  is  to  speak  well  of  his  Son. 

I  like  that  little  word  "  hath."  In  my  Bible  it  is  right 
in  the  middle  of  the  verse.  There  arc  two  lines  above 
it,  and  two  lines  below  it,  and  it  is  right  in  the  middle  of 
the  middle  line.  It  don't  say  you  shall  have  everlasting 
life  after  awhile,  or  that  God  will  give  it  to  you  when 
you  die;  but  if  ye  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord  and  believe 
on  him  that  sent  him,  you  have  the  everlasting  life  in  you 
at  this  very  moment.  My  friends,  get  on  this  text  an  1 
stand  on  it.  It  is  a  rock.  Yen  may  tremble  sometimes 
when  you  stand  upon  it,  but  the  rock  will  never  tremble. 


240      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

In  the  twenty-eighth  verse  it  says:  "  For  the  hour  is 
coming,  in  the  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear 
his  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  ;  they  that  have  done 
good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life;  and  they  that  have 
done  evil,  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation."  I  don't 
know  as  this  refers  to  the  resurrection  of  the  last  day. 
Perhaps  it  means  that  souls  are  to  be  raised  from  the 
death  of  sin  by  hearing  and  believing  the  voice  of  Christ. 
At  any  rate  it  is  a  greater  miracle  to  convert  a  soul  than 
it  was  to  raise  dead  Lazarus. 

Now  Christ  sometimes  gives  us  specimens  of  his  work. 
When  he  healed  Jairus's  daughter,  some  of  those  skeptics 
said,  "  The  girl  never  was  dead,  anyhow.  So  a  little 
while  after  he  raises  the  widow's  son  from  the  bier  on 
which  they  were  carrying  him  out  to  bury  him.  Still 
some  don't  believe,  and  so,  after  awhile,  he  comes  to  the 
grave  of  Lazarus,  who  had  been  dead  so  long  that  the 
body  had  begun  to  decay,  and  calls  to  him,  "  Lazarus, 
come  forth  ! "  Some  one  says,  there  was  so  much  power 
in  the  voice  of  the  Lord  that  if  he  had  not  called 
Lazarus  by  name  all  the  dead  in  the  grave-yard  would 
have  come  forth  to  meet  him.  My  friends,  you  have 
heard  the  word  of  the  Lord,  accept  it,  believe  it  now, 
and  before  you  leave  the  hall  you  may  pass  from  death 
unto  life. 


Bible  Portraits— Simon  Peter.  241 


SIMON    PETER. 

aNE  of  the  first  glimpses  we  have  of  this  man  Simon, 
whom  Jesus  surnamed  Cephas,  or  Peter,  that  is,  a 
stone,  was  when  he  and  his  brother  Andrew,  who  were 
two  poor  men  making  their  living  by  fishing  in  the  Sea 
of  Galilee,  were  called  by  Christ  to  follow  him. 

At  another  time  Christ  was  walking  by  the  sea-shore 
when  these  two  men  were  out  in  their  boat  fishing. 
They  hadn't  had  very  good  luck,  and  when  Jesus  told 
them  to  pull  out  a  little  further,  where  the  water  was 
deep,  and  let  down  their  nets  for  a  draught,  Peter  was  of 
the  opinion  that  it  wouldn't  be  of  any  use,  for  they  had 
been  fishing  all  night  without  catching  any  thing  ;  still  he 
said  he  would  do  it,  and  when  they  came  to  draw  in  their 
nets  they  made  such  a  very  remarkable  haul  that  their 
boat  was  filled  till  it  began  to  sink.  After  they  got 
ashore,  Jesus  says  to  them, "  Follow  me,  and  I  will  make 
you  fishers  of  men." 

I  want  you  all  to  notice  that  Peter  was  first  called  to 

be  a  disciple  and  then  to  be  an  apostle.    He  did  not  leave 

his  work  until  he  was  called  the  second  time.     I  think  it 

is  well  for  us  to   notice  this,  because  there  are  a  good 

many  young  converts  these  days  who  are  looking  to  the 

work  of  the  ministry,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  they 

have  ever  been  called  to  the  ministry.     It  is  one  thing 

to  be  called  to  be   a  disciple,  and  quite  another  to   be 

called  to  be  an  apostle.     John  Wesley  used  to  say  to  the 
11 


242      Moody  :  ms  Words — Work — Workers. 

young  candidates  for  the  ministry,  after  they  had  preached 
their  trial  sermons,  "  Did  you  make  any  one  mad  ? 
Did  you  convert  any  body?"  And  if  to  both  of  these 
questions  they  answered,  "  No,"  he  would  say,  "  Then 
that  is  very  good  evidence  you  are  not  called  to  the 
ministry." 

We  find  in  another  place  that  Peter  says  to  the  Lord, 
"We  have  left  all  and  followed  thee;"  but  the  "all" 
was  not  a  great  deal — a  few  old  boats  and  broken  nets 
and  one  great  haul  of  fish  ;  and  what  was  all  that  in  com- 
parison to  what  he  gained  by  becoming  a  disciple  of  the 
Lord?  He  left  his  boats  and  his  nets  and  his  fish,  and 
he  gained  the  friendship  of  Christ,  which  was  worth  more 
than  all  the  world. 

The  next  time  we  get  a  glimpse  of  Peter  is  in  the 
fourteenth  chapter  of  Matthew,  where  the  Lord  called 
him  to  walk  to  him  on  the  water.  Here  we  find  Peter 
in  doubt.  He  got  on  well  enough  so  long  as  he  kept 
his  eye  on  Christ,  but  we  find  by  the  account  that  he 
turned  away  his  eyes  from  the  Lord  and  began  to  look 
at  the  water,  and  when  he  saw  the  waves,  and  heard 
the  boisterous  wind,  he  began  to  be  afraid.  Ah,  my 
friends,  that  is  the  way  it  is  with  all  of  us ;  when  we 
get  our  eye  off  from  Christ,  the  troubles  and  dangers  of 
this  life  look  very  terrible. 

Now  let  me  call  your  attention  to  Peter's  prayer  on 
this  occasion.  It  was  a  short  prayer,  and  right  to  the 
point :  "  Lord,  save  me."  It  didn't  begin  with  a  long 
preamble,  as  a  great  many  prayers  do.  If  it  had  taken 
him  as  long  to  come  to  what  he  wanted  to  say  as 
it  does  some  people  in  our  prayer-meetings,  he  would 


Bible  Portraits— Simon  Peter.  243 

have  been  forty  feet  under  water  before  he  would  have 
reached  it. 

"  Lord,  save  me."  That  was  a  good  prayer,  and  the 
Lord  immediately  answered  it. 

Again,  in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Matthew  we  find 
that  Christ  is  asking  his  disciples,  "Whom  do  men  say 
that  I  am?"  and  when  they  answer,  "  Some  say,  John  the 
Baptist,  and  some  say,  Elias,  and  some  say,  one  of  the 
old  prophets,"  he  turns  to  Peter,  and  says,  "Whom  say 
ye  that  I  am  ?  " 

And  Peter  answered,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God."  So,  you  see,  Peter  was  a  Trinitarian. 
He  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  and 
made  his  confession  accordingly. 

When  Jesus  goes  up  to  the  mountain  of  transfiguration 
Peter  is  one  of  the  men  he  takes  with  him.  On  this 
occasion  Peter  seems  to  have  been  confused  in  his  ideas 
of  worship,  and  proposes  to  make  three  tabernacles,  one 
for  Moses,  and  another  for  Elias,  and  another  for  the  Son 
of  God.  But  God  is  not  pleased  with  this  idea,  so  he 
just  snatches  away  Moses  and  Elias,  and  leaves  them 
Jesus  only. 

It  seems  to  me  there  is  a  great  deal  too  much  min- 
ister-worship and  church-worship  in  the  present  day. 
What  we  want  is  the  worship  of  Jesus  only. 

In  the  twenty-sixth  chapter  of  Matthew  we  find  an 
account  of  Peter's  fall.  He  became  self-confident  and 
proud,  and  the  Lord  couldn't  use  him  any  more  till  he- 
had  been  humbled. 

I  want  you  to  notice  the  fact  that  some  of  the  great- 
est characters  in  the  Bible  failed  at  that  point  in  their 


244      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

character  where  they  seemed  to  be  the  strongest.  Peter 
had  said,  "  I  will  never  be  offended  because  of  thee  ;"  but 
Christ,  who  could  see  the  future  as  well  as  the  present, 
said,  "  This  night,  before  the  cock  crow,  thou  shalt  deny 
me  thrice."  Here  was  the  beginning  of  Peter's  downfall. 
He  was  too  self-confident.  The  Christian  who  begins  to 
boast  is  on  the  very  brink  of  destruction. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  words  of  Christ,  Peter  did  not 
take  warning.  "What!  I  deny  the  Lord  ?  Impossible! 
Though  all  should  deny  thee,  yet  will  not  I." 

It  is  not  very  long  before  we  find  Peter  guilty  of  dis- 
obedience. When  Christ  took  him  with  him  into  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane  he  told  him  to  watch  and  pray ; 
but  instead  of  that  Peter  fell  asleep.  Some  people 
say  this  sleep  was  supernatural,  but  that  is  all  non- 
sense. There  are  plenty  of  sleepy  Christians  and  sleepy 
Churches  to  be  found  in  all  ages  of  the  world ;  and 
wherever  a  Church  goes  to  sleep  something  always  goes 
wrong.  It  is  the  sleepy  Church  members  who  go  to 
the  theater  and  to  the  ball-room,  and  in  that  condition 
they  are  always  an  easy  prey  for  the  devil.  You  never 
find  card-playing,  tobacco-chewing,  horse-racing,  danc- 
ing Christians,  but  they  are  half  asleep  already.  Those 
who  expect  to  follow  Christ  must  keep  awake. 

The  next  downward  step  of  Peter  was,  when  the 
crowd  came  out  to  arrest  his  Master,  and  he  drew  his 
sword  and  cut  off  the  ear  of  the  high-priest's  servant. 
That  wasn't  the  way  to  confess  his  Lord.  If  Jesus 
Christ  was  indeed  the  Son  of  God,  as  he  had  professed 
to  believe  him,  he  needed  no  help  from  Peter's  sword. 
We  find  that  Christ  rebuked  him,  and  told  him  to  put 


Bible  Portraits — Simon   Peter.  245 

up  his  sword  again  into  its  place,  and  afterward  he  re- 
placed the  servant's  ear,  and  made  it  as  good  as  ever. 
Perhaps  Peter  was  mortified  at-  this.  At  any  rate,  he 
seems  to  have  gone  down  very  rapidly  from  this  point 
to  the  time — a  few  hours  later — when  we  find  him  de- 
nying his  Master. 

Poor  Peter  !  This  man,  who  is  so  strong  and  zealous  ; 
who  is  going  to  stand  by  the  Lord  when  every  body  else 
forsakes  him  ;  this  man,  who  slashes  about  with  his 
sword  in  order  to  defend  him — is  frightened  almost  out 
of  his  wits  by  a  servant  girl  ! 

Peter  is  now  guilty  of  lying.  He  has  told  one  lie, 
and  that  always  needs  a  hundred  to  keep  it  up.  Again 
and  again  he  declares  that  he  doesn't  know  the  Saviour, 
and  the  last  time  he  adds  the  terrible  sins  of  cursing  and 
swearing. 

"Thy  speech  bewrayeth  thee,"  said  one  of  those  who 
recognized  Peter  as  one  of  Christ's  disciples. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  us  to  be  known  as  Christians  by 
our  speech.  I  suppose  Peter's  speech  was  simply  a  dialect 
spoken  by  the  people  among  whom  he  lived.  Perhaps 
the  dialect  of  Galilee  was  different  from  that  of  Judea, 
and  so  the  servants  in  the  hall  of  the  high-priest  knew 
him  for  one  of  Christ's  disciples,  because  he  spoke  in  the 
Galilean  dialect  There  is  a  lesson  for  us  here  :  if  by  any 
sign  in  our  words  people  can  know  that  we  are  the  dis- 
ciples of  the  Lord  Jesus,  it  is  nothing  for  us  to  be 
ashamed  of,  and  it  is  something  that  is  very  helpful  to 
the  world. 

But,  in  spite  of  his  wicked  denial,  Christ  did  not  cast 
him  off.     He  just  gave  him  one  look,  and  that  won  him 


246      Moody  :  his  Works— Work— Workers. 

back  forever.  O  !  how  ready  the  Saviour  is  to  forgive 
those  who  wander  away  from  him  if  they  will  only  come 
back  as  Peter  did.  I  suppose  poor  Peter  would  have 
been  altogether  heart-broken,  and  so  ashamed  of  himself 
that  he  never  would  have  ventured  to  appear  among  the 
disciples  again,  if  it  hadn't  been  for  that  token  of  Christ's 
continued  love. 

We  read  in  the  account  of  the  resurrection  that  Jesus 
sent  a  special  message  to  Peter,  "  Go  and  tell  my  dis- 
ciples, and  Peter."  Don't  leave  out  Peter,  though  he 
was  the  one  who  denied  me.  But  when  he  appeared 
unto  them  at  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  he  reminded  Peter  of 
the  boast  he  had  made,  and  said  unto  him, "  Simon,  son 
of  Jonas,  lovest  thou  me  more  than  these?" 

Peter  was  the  only  man  who  had  boasted  that  he  was 
better  than  his  brethren,  and  he  was  the  only  man,  ex- 
cept Judas,  who  denied  his  Lord.  And  now,  instead 
of  repeating  that  boastful  speech,  "  Though  all  should 
forsake  thee,  yet  will  not  I,"  he  does  not  venture  to 
compare  himself  any  more  with  his  brethren,  but  mod- 
estly answers:  "Yea,  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  love 
thee." 

Peter  has  learned  a  lesson  of  humility,  and  now,  though 
not  before,  Christ  can  make  him  his  chief  apostle. 


Bible  Portraits— Zaccheus.  247 


ZACCHEUS. 

fAKE  the  case  of  Zaccheus.     He  was  looking  for  the 
Saviour,  and  the  Saviour  was  looking  for  him,  and 
what  a  delightful  time  it  was  when  they  met ! 

This  man  was  small  of  stature,  and  had  a  poor  chance 
in  a  crowd.  I  can  imagine  the  little  man  trying  to  get 
one  glimpse  at  Jesus,  and  you  can  see  him  standing  on 
tiptoe,  but  he  can't  see  him,  the  crowd  is  so  great.  Then 
he  runs  on  ahead  and  climbs  a  sycamore-tree,  where  he 
thinks  he  can  hide,  for  he  don't  like  to  be  seen  looking 
after  Christ.  By  and  by  the  crowd  came  along.  They 
thought  Christ  would  sometime  be  crowned  king,  and  so 
he  had  a  great  many  followers. 

If  men  are  going  to  get  some  high  office  they  usually 
have  a  great  many  admirers  ;  but  when  it  is  Gethsemane, 
humiliation,  and  a  cross,  O  how  few  want  to  follow  Him 
then  !  I  can  see  he  looks  at  one  man  and  says,  "  That 
is  not  him."  Then  he  runs  his  eye  along,  and  at  last  it 
rests  on  him  who  was  fairer  than  the  sons  of  men.  He 
didn't  need  any  one  to  tell  him. 

I  can  see  the  Son  of  God  come  to  the  place  and  stop. 
Every  eye  was  centered  upon  him,  some  one  was  going 
to  be  blessed.  He  looks  up  into  the  tree.  There  is  one 
of  Adam's  degenerate  sons  up  there. 

Then  he  calls,  "  Zaccheus  !  " 

I  can  imagine  the  first  thing  that  flashed  through  Zac- 
cheus's  mind  was,  "  Who  told  him  my  name?     He  knows 


248      Moody:  tils  Words — Work — Workers. 

all  about  me."  Yes,  sinner,  God  knows  all  about  you  ; 
your  name,  the  street  you  live  on,  in  fact,  he  has  got  the 
very  hairs  of  your  head  numbered. 

"  Zaccheus,  make  haste,  and  come  down ;  for  to-day  I 
must  abide  at  thy  house." 

It  was  a  strange  scene.  Zaccheus  was  the  chief  pub- 
lican of  Jericho ;  the  Jews  wouldn't  recognize  him, 
wouldn't  speak  to  him,  and  now  Christ  is  going  to  be  his 
guest  ! 

Then  we  read,  "  He  made  haste,  and  came  down,  and 
received  him  joyfully."  That  is  a  good  sign  of  conver- 
sion when  a  man  receives  Christ  joyfully. 

We  have  a  good  many  people  who  write  and  talk 
against  sudden  conversions.  But  how  long  did  it  take  to 
convert  Zaccheus  ?  When  he  went  up  the  tree,  nobody 
in  Jericho  would  have  told  you  he  was  a  converted  man, 
and  yet  he  was  a  converted  man  when  he  came  down,  for 
he  received  the  Lord  joyfully.  He  must  have  been  con- 
verted somewhere  between  the  limb  and  the  ground. 
You  don't  believe  in  these  sudden  conversions.  You  say 
they  are  not  genuine.  I  wish  we  had  a  few  more  Zac- 
cheuses  in  Boston. 

What  did  he  do?  He  said:  "  I  give  half  of  my  goods 
to  feed  the  poor."  The  poor  in  Jericho  believed  in  Zac- 
cheus's  conversion. 

But  he  did  better  than  that :  "  If  I  have  taken  any 
thing  from  any  man  by  false  accusation,  I  restore  to  him 
fourfold."  There  is  restitution.  I  do  hope  we  shall  get 
back  to  those  days  when  men  make  restitution,  for  when 
men  begin  to  make  restitution,  the  world  will  have  con- 
fidence in  the  religion  we  preach.     I  can  see  him  go  back 


Bible  Portraits — Zaccheus.  249 

to  Jericho  into  his  office,  and  saying  to  his  chief  clerk  : 
"  I  wish  you  would  make  out  that  man's  account,  I  want 
to  find  out  how  much  I  have  taxed  him." 

He  looks  over  the  account,  and  says  :  "  We  have  taxed 
him  $100  too  much." 

Zaccheus  replies,  "  Make  out  a  check  for  $400  and 
send  it  to  him." 

Don't  you  believe  all  Jericho  had  confidence  in  Zac- 
cheus's  conversion  as  these  checks  went  flying  round  ? 
That  was  the  most  powerful  way  to  prove  it.  If  there 
is  a  man  here  that  has  defrauded  some  one,  don't  let 
him  think  he  can  get  into  heaven  till  he  makes  resti- 
tution. If  you  have  taken  that  which  don't  belong  to 
you,  don't  think  that  God  is  going  to  hear  your  prayer. 
You  needn't  come  to  these  meetings,  and  sing  and  pray, 
and  think  you  are  going  to  cover  it  up.  God's  eyes  look 
down  and  see  it.  If  you  want  the  blessing  of  God  to 
come  upon  you  and  your  family,  do  all  in  your  power  to 
make  restitution  ;  then  Christ  will  come  into  your  home 
as  he  did  into  the  home  of  Zaccheus.  He  not  only 
blessed  Zaccheus  himself,  but  Zaccheus's  wife,  Mrs.  Zac- 
cheus, and  all  the  little  Zaccheuses  too. 

While  Christ  was  a  guest  with  Zaccheus,  the  Pharisees 
were  grumbling  and  finding  fault  that  he  had  gone  to  be 
a  guest  of  a  publican,  and  it  was  on  this  memorable 
occasion  Christ  uttered  the  text  I  have  read  to-night : 
"  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost." 
It* 


250      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


MARY    OF    BETHANY. 

)TlN  the  closing  chapters  of  John's  Gospel  we  have 
l$i  many  of  the  last  words  and  acts  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  and  they  ought  to  be  very  precious  to  us. 

You  know  when  we  lose  a  friend  how  much  we  think 
of  his  last  words.  When  I  went  East  a  few  weeks  ago, 
to  lay  my  brother  in  the  grave,  the  very  first  thing  I 
wanted  to  know  was,  what  were  his  last  words,  and  then 
I  went  all  over  the  farm  to  see  the  last  works  he  had 
done. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  these  words  :  "  Then 
Jesus,  six  days  before  the  passover,  came  to  Bethany." 

He  knew  that  the  chief  priests  had  been  searching 
every-where  for  him,  and  had  given  orders  that  if  any 
knew  where  he  was  they  should  show  it ;  but  no  one 
was  able  to  take  him  until  he  gave  himself  up  of  his 
own  accord.  The  officers  sent  to  arrest  him  went 
back  without  him ;  and  when  the  chief  priests  asked, 
"  Why  have  ye  not  brought  him  ?  "  they  said,  "  Never 
man  spake  like  this  man."  Nobody  could  take  him  till 
he  gave  himself  up,  and  here  is  another  proof  of  our 
Lord's  divinity. 

When  he  came  to  Bethany  they  made  him  a  supper ; 
and  while  they  sat  at  the  table  Mary  took  a  pound  of 
ointment  of  spikenard,  very  precious,  worth  forty  or  fifty 
dollars,  and  anointed  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  wiped  his 
feet   with  her   hair.     Judas    Iscariot   complained   of  the 


Bible  Tori  raits — Mary  of  Bethany.        251 

waste  of  the  ointment ;  but  Jesus  said,  "  Let  her  alone  : 
against  the  day  of  my  burying  hath  she  kept  this." 

There  was  a  feast  at  this  time  in  Jerusalem,  and  people 
were  very  much  excited  over  the  raising  of  Lazarus. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any  body,  not  even 
the  Jews,  who  were  his  bitterest  enemies,  ever  disputed 
that  Lazarus  had  been  raised  from  the  dead  ;  but  there 
are  a  good  many  people  here  in  Chicago  who  say  they 
doubt  it. 

Now  let  us  look  at  what  Mary  did.  There  are  a  good 
many  rich  men  who  try  to  do  something  to  hand  down 
their  name  to  posterity.  They  give  large  sums  of  money 
to  have  a  library  or  a  town  named  after  them,  and  in 
fifty  years'  time  nobody  knows  whether  the  town  was 
named  after  a  man  or  a  mountain.  But  of  this  act  of 
Mary  Jesus  says,  "Wherever  this  Gospel  shall  be 
preached,  this  that  she  hath  done  shall  be  spoken  of  for 
a  memorial  of  her."  As  some  one  has  said,  "  He  chained 
her  name  to  the  Gospel  chariot,  and  it  has  rolled  down 
the  ages." 

My  friends,  if  you  want  to  be  immortal  go  and  do 
something  for  Christ. 

There  was  a  poor  widow  one  day  came  up  to  the 
temple,  (perhaps  she  had  two  or  three  children  cling- 
ing to  her  dress,)  and  put  into  the  contribution-box 
two  mites,  which  make  a  farthing.  I  suppose  the  Jeru- 
salem papers,  if  they  had  any,  came  out  the  next  morn- 
ing with  brilliant  accounts  of  the  great  collection  up  at 
the  tpmple,  for  there  were  a  good  many  rich  men  who 
gave,  some  a  hundred  and  some  a  thousand  dollars ; 
but  the  Saviour  said  that  the  poor  widow  had  given  more 


252       Moody :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

than  they  all.  There  isn't  any  thing  on  record  of  what 
the  rich  men  gave,  but  the  gift  of  the  widow  will  never 
be  forgotten. 

Now  I  suppose  that  Mary  did  this  out  of  gratitude  to 
the  Saviour,  who  had  raised  her  brother  from  the  dead. 
Her  heart  was  full  of  thanksgiving  ;  nothing  was  too 
good  to  show  it.  Has  not  the  Lord  raised  up  some  one 
of  your  brothers,  a  son,  or  a  husband,  or  a  friend,  and 
what  have  you  ever  done  to  prove  your  gratitude  to  him 
on  account  of  it  ? 

Here  is  another  thing  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to : 
it  was  his  feet  and  not  his  head  that  Mary  anointed. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  who  are  willing  to  get 
to  the  head  of  Christ,  but  are  not  willing  to  be  at  his 
feet.  Young  men  go  to  Princeton,  and  Yale,  and  Har- 
vard, and  to  the  theological  seminaries ;  but  I  tell  you  if 
a  minister  don't  go  to  the  feet  of  Jesus  he  can't  preach. 
We  have  got  to  do  just  as  Mary  did — sit  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  and  learn  of  him.  That  is  God's  college,  and  all 
the  other  learning  in  the  world  will  never  do  you  any 
good  unless  you  learn  in  that  school. 


INTERIOR    OF    CHICAGO    TABERNACLE. 


PART    III. 

OUTLINES  OF  DOCTRINE. 


MR.  MOODY'S  THEOLOGY— INTRODUCTION. 


(URING  the  progress  of  the  great  revivals  in  London 
W^~  under  the  labors  of  the  American  evangelists,  Rev.  Dr. 
dimming,  the  famous  millenarian  prophet,  preached  a  ser- 
mon on  "Mr.  Moody's  Place  in  Prophecy;"  a  theme  some- 
what difficult  of  treatment 

Mr.  Moody's  place  in  theology  is  a  topic  of  more  general 
interest,  and  one  which  admits  of  a  more  definite  treatment. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  How  comes  it  that  this  man, 
with  none  of  the  traditional  preparation  for  the  work  of  the 
Christian  ministry,  so  far  surpasses  all  the  men  of  his  time  in 
those  very  lines  of  work  for  which  they  have  had  a  life-long 
training  and  experience?  Why  do  leading  clergymen  of  all 
evangelical  orders  accept  him  as  a  spiritual  autocrat,  and,  for 
the  time  being,  make  it  a  point  of  duty  to  do  what  he  directs, 
and  to  believe-what  he  teaches?  Why  do  people  by  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  go  to  inquire  of  him,  and  of  those  whom 
he  designates,  concerning  those  things  which  are  plainly  writ- 
ten down  in  books,  and  which  are  supposed  to  be  constantly 
preached  in  all  orthodox  pulpits  ?  What  and  why  are  those 
wonderful  results  called  conversions?  and  how  is  it  that  Mr. 
Moody  is  so  much  more  successful  in  reaching  those  results 
than  others  who  are  his  equals  in  purity  of  life,  and  his  supe- 
riors in  knowledge  and  culture  ? 

The  fact  which,  more  than  any  other,  accounts  for  the  won- 
derful going  out  of  the  community  to  this  Chicago  John  the 


254      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Baptist  is,  that  he  professes  to  deal. with  supernatural  things. 
For  human  power  and  wisdom  in  spiritual  things  he  has  but 
little  respect.  What  doth  it  profit  a  minister  to  read  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  Scriptures  and  the  writings  of  the  Fa- 
thers, if  he  does  not  know  how  to  bring  sinners  to  Christ? 
What  difference  does  it  make  with  a  lost  sinner  whether  he 
was  well  up  in  classical  literature,  or  was  a  man  of  elegance 
and  taste  ?  He  has  read  in  the  Bible  that  the  things  which 
are  seen  are  temporal,  t)r  temporary,  but  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  are  eternal,  and  he  believes  it  and  acts  upon  it. 
The  harmonies  of  law  amount  to  nothing  with  him.  He  only 
inquires  of  a  man  whether  he  is  in  harmony  with  God.  With 
him  development  means  growth  in  grace.  No  matter  what 
else  he  does  or  does  not  believe,  if  a  sinner  does  not  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ  as  his  personal  Redeemer  and  Saviour  he 
is  lost :  the  moment  he  comes  to  believe  he  is  saved. 

If  any  one  asks  him  how  he  knows  this,  he  has  only  one 
answer — "  God  says  so  :  "  and  that,  with  him,  is  the  end  of  all 
questions. 

His  familiarity  with  the  supernatural  world  appears  in  his 
habits  of  life.  He  asks  for  divine  direction  at  every  step  of 
his  plans  and  of  their  execution;  the  concurrent  voices  of 
good  men  and  women  are  only  useful  as  indications  of  what 
is  the  will  of  God  in  any  given  case.  He  has  absolute  faith 
in  every  thing  he  finds  promised  in  the  Bible.  He  trusts 
the  supply  of  all  his  wants,  as  well  as  those  of  his  family, 
on  a  text  in  Matthew,  or  especially  in  John,  as  readily  as  he 
would  on  a  written  contract  signed  by  Messrs.  Farwell,  Dodge, 
and  Stewart ;  nay,  more  readily.  These  men  might  break  or 
die,  but  God  can  never  do  either.  It  used  to  be  one  of  Mr. 
Moody's  favorite  sayings,  in  reference  to  his  temporal  needs, 
"  God  is  rich,  and  I  am  working  for  him." 

This  question  once  settled,  money  becomes  his  servant, 
while  to  most  men  it  is  the  master.  A  man  in  London  of- 
fered him  a  thousand  pounds  sterling  just  to  sit  for  his  pho- 
tograph, which  he  indignantly  refused  :  the  thing  did  not 
seem  right,  and  money  was  of  no  possible  consequence. 


Moody's  Theology— Introduction.         255 

When  once  a  man  becomes  superior  to  money  he  has  be- 
come superior  to  the  mass  of  mankind. 

Mr.  Moody  believes  in  inspiration,  that  is,  in  his  own 
inspiration.  He  knows  that  God  spoke  unto  the  fathers 
by  the  apostles  and  prophets,  and  he  thinks  he  is  speaking 
unto  their  children  by  the  evangelists,  of  whom  he  is  one. 
When  he  speaks  what  he  feels  that  God  has  told  him,  not 
Pius  himself  could  be  more  dogmatic.  It  is  refreshing  and 
reassuring,  in  these  days  of  religious  liberalism,  to  find  a 
man  believing  in  God  and  the  Bible  with  all  his  might. 
Such  a  believer  readily  finds  a  calling,  and  a  follower  as 
a  teacher.  He  is  confessed  by  eminent  biblical  scholars 
to  have  prayed  his  way  further  into  the  divine  mysteries 
of  the  word  than  they  have  even  been  able  to  dig  with  lexicon 
and  grammar.  He  has  learned  to  laugh  at  the  idea  of  trying 
to  understand  spiritual  things  by  natural  means.  If  a  text 
troubles  him  he  asks  some  other  text  to  explain  it,  and  if  that 
will  not  do  he  takes  it  straight  to  God  and  asks  him  about  it. 
The  result  of  all  this  is  a  kind  and  extent  of  biblical  learning 
which  is  both  a  surprise  and  a  revelation  to  the  Church  and 
the  ministry. 

People  sit  at  his  feet  and  learn  of  him  because  they  feel 
sure  that  he  has  been  learning  of  God.  This  accounts  for 
his  vast  congregations  ;  for  the  multitudes  are  believers,  and 
really  want  to  know  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.  They  have 
been  discouraged  and  disgusted,  it  may  be,  with  the  inferen- 
tial and  degenerate  theology  of  the  sects,  and  so  do  not  go  to 
church;  but  here  is  a  man  who  cares  no  more  for  sects  and 
creeds  than  for  the  trade-mark  on  a  spoon.  A  doctrine  that 
feeds  him  suits  him  ;  and  what  is  good  for  him  he  presumes 
to  be  good  for  his  congregations. 

He  is  all  the  time  aiming  at  supernatural  results.  No 
repairs  of  the  old  nature  for  him;  nothing  short  of  regen- 
eration is  worth  thinking  of,  for  nothing  short  of  that  will  save 
a  soul.  He  proposes  to  bring  sinners  into  immediate  con- 
tact with  almighty  power  and  infinite  grace  ;  hence  any  con- 
ceivable  difference  in   their  degree   of  sinfulness  makes  no 


256      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

difference  at  all.  He  has  not  studied  mathematical  infinities 
to  find  out  that  "  if  any  appreciable  quantity  be  added  to  or 
subtracted  from  infinity  the  result  is  infinity,"  but  he  prac- 
tices by  that  rule  all  the  time.  A  drunkard,  or  a  harlot,  or 
an  infidel,  or  a  vagabond,  or  a  gambler,  or  a  liquor-seller, 
can  be  saved  if  he  will  believe,  just  as  easily  as  a  good  boy 
or  a  nice  young  lady  of  religious  proclivities.  Grace  is  in- 
finite, and  any  human  amount  of  sin,  more  or  less,  makes  no 
difference  with  Christ's  ability  and  willingness  to  save.  In  a 
word,  Mr.  Moody  offers  a  divine  and  infinite  remedy  for  sin 
and  all  its  penalties,  no  wonder,  then,  that  a  class  of  per- 
sons who  have  felt  the  curse  of  sin  upon  them  should  come 
in  crowds  to  this  man,  with  whom  is  the  secret  of  the  Lord. 

Perhaps  it  never  entered  into  Mr.  Moody's  mind  to  arrange 
his  theology  into  a  system,  but  its  exceeding  simplicity  ren- 
ders the  task  an  easy  one. 

He  is  accustomed  to  say,  "  There  are  three  R's  in  the 
Bible  :  Ruin  by  sin,  Redemption  by  Christ,  and  Regenera- 
tion by  the  Holy  Ghost.  According  to  this  triad  of  topics, 
he  lays  out  all  his  campaigns.  Outside  of  them,  in  the  region 
of  speculative,  historic,  or  inferential  theology,  he  does  not 
go;  not  even  into  the  realm  of  the  Church,  its  institution, 
orders,  and  sacraments. 

His  system  of  theology  is  bounded  by  his  work  as  an  evan- 
gelist. 

"I  have  in  all  about  seven  hundred  sermons,"  said  he; 
"  but  there  are  only  about  three  hundred  of  them  that  are  fit 
to  convert  sinners  with." 

By  this  rule  of  fitness'  he  tests  all  the  ideas  which  present 
themselves  to  his  mind.  If  there  be  salvation  in  them  he 
adopts  and  uses  them  ;  if  not,  he  casts  them  aside. 

But  the  chief  feature  of  his  theology  is  its  rigid  following 
of  the  written  words  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  With  him  there 
is  no  other  authority. 

He  insists  that  sinners  shall  come  into  the  kingdom  of  God 
intelligently,  along  the  path  marked  out,  and  through  the 
"  Door  "  held   open    in    the  Gospel.     He   will   not    have  the 


Moody's  Theology — Introduction.         257 

faith  of  believers  to  stand  on  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  on  the 
revelation  of  God. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  Mr.  Moody's  work  for  Christ  his 
sermons  and  addresses,  though  often  founded  upon  a  text  of 
Scripture,  were  largely  made  up  of  personal  incidents;  argu- 
ments drawn  from  surrounding  scenes  and  circumstances; 
fervid  personal  appeals  to  Christians,  inciting  them  to  greater 
activity;  and  earnest  calls  to  sinners,  urging  them  at  once  to 
repent  and  believe  the  Gospel. 

He  reckoned  all  sermons  and  addresses  which  he  heard  or 
read  as  so  much  lawful  plunder,  and  of  this  he  made  no  se- 
cret. He  would  sometimes  say  to  a  minister,  "  I  heard  you 
preach  from  such  a  text  at  such  a  time,  and  1  went  home 
and  preached  that  same  sermon  to  my  people." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Savage  mentions  a  discourse  which  Mr.  Moody 
found  in  a  little  tract  entitled  "  Quench  not  the  Spirit,"  and 
which  he  preached  with  such  telling  effect  that  twenty  per- 
sons were  converted  by  it.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
author  himself  would  have  recognized  it  in  Mr.  Moody's 
version. 

If  he  met  any  one  from  whom  it  seemed  probable  he  might 
obtain  an  idea  for  use  in  his  pulpit  he  would  salute  him 
with — 

"Give  me  something  out  of  your  heart.  Tell  me  some- 
thing about  Christ." 

At  table  in  the  Farwell  Hall  restaurant,  where  he  and  his 
confreres  dined  together,  he  would  ask  one  and  another 
around  the  table,  "  What  has  been  your  best  thought  to- 
day ?  " 

But  God  had  some  better  thing  for  his  servant  than  the 
results  of  his  own  observation,  even  the  hidden  mystery  of 
his  truth. 

Mr.  Harry  Moorehouse,  an  English  Bible  reader,  while  on 
an  evangelistic  tour  in  America  some  years  ago,  said  to  him, 

"  Mr.  Moody,  you  are  sailing  on  the  wrong  tack.  If  you  will 
change  your  course,  and  learn  to  preach  God's  word  instead 
of  your  own,  he  will  make  you  a  great  power  for  good;  "  at 


258      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

the  same  time  quoting  the  exhortation  of  Paul  to  Timothy, 
"  I  charge  thee  therefore  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his  appear- 
ing and  his  kingdom;  Preach  the  word." 

But  the  great  question  was  how  to  acquire  such  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  word  as  should  enable  him  to  preach  it. 

Mr.  Moorehouse  said,  "  You  need  only  one  book  for  the 
study  of  the  Bible." 

Mr.  Moody  responded,  "You  must  have  studied  a  great 
many  books  to  come  by  your  knowledge  of  it." 

"  No,"  was  the  reply.  "Since  I  began  to  be  an  evangelist 
I  have  been  a  man  of  one  book.  If  a  text  of  Scripture  troub- 
les me,  I  ask  another  text  to  explain  it ;  and  if  this  will  not 
answer,  I  carry  it  straight  to  the  Lord." 

Here  was  a  new  scheme  of  education  for  the  pulpit :  every 
man  his  own  theological  seminary  ;  the  only  text-book  the 
Bible  ;  instead  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  the  language  of  prayer ; 
for  professors  and  teachers,  the  apostles  and  prophets;  with 
Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit  as  head  over  all.  In  this  school 
even  he  might  become  a  scholar.  But  so  great  a  revolution 
in  his  habits  of  study  and  preaching  was  not  to  be  brought 
about  all  at  once.  His  world  was  so  full  of  wonderful  and 
instructive  scenes,  that  the  stories  of  them  seemed  almost  to 
tell  themselves.  It  was  hard  for  him  to  find  time  for  a  great 
deal  of  Bible  in  his  hail-storm  harangues ;  but  he  kept  stur- 
dily at  it,  trying  to  acquire  the  biblical  method  of-  preaching, 
in  which  was  the  hiding  of  the  power  that  was  to  be  revealed 
to  him  in  days  to  come. 

From  that  time  he  ceased  to  urge  people  to  begin  their  re- 
ligious life  by  finding  something  to  do  for  Christ;  but  in- 
sisted that,  first  of  all,  they  should  let  Christ  do  something 
for  them.  If  they  would  only  believe,  Christ  would  help 
them  to  do. 

He  began  to  understand  the  duty  and  privilege  of  entire 
consecration  and  perfect  love.  He  ceased  to  teach  that  a 
holy  heart  must  be  attained  by  a  life-long  struggle  with  self, 
the  world,  and  the  wicked  one  ;  but  urged  sinners  to  accept 


Moody's  Theology — Introduction.         259 

it  as  a  gift  from  the  Lord  himself.  Conversion  was  instan- 
taneous— the  warfare  was  to  come  afterward.  This,  he  dis- 
covered, was  the  doctrine  preached  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel  : 
"A  new  heart  also  will  1  give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I 
put  within  you  :  and  I  will  take  away  the  stony  heart  out  of 
your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you  a  heart  of  flesh." 

He  began  to  study  the  Bible  on  his  knees.  In  this  he 
made  rapid  progress.  Some  of  the  hard  words  did,  indeed, 
continue  to  plague  him  ;  but  he  soon  found  out  that  the 
longest  words  in  the  Bible,  as  every-where  else,  were  not  apt 
to  be  of  the  most  importance.  There  were  very  few  practi- 
cal and  saving  doctrines  in  the  word  of  God  through  which 
he  could  not  pray  his  way.  Like  his  friend  Moorehouse,  he 
became  a  man  of  "one  book;"  that  is,  a  Bagster  Bible. 
This  he  carried  about  with  him  continually  in  order  to  use 
his  leisure  moments  in  studying  it.  His  sermons  began  to 
be  rich  in  the  wealth  of  the  Scripture,  and,  beyond  all  doubt, 
it  was  this  new  acquirement  which,  with  God's  blessing, 
opened  out  before  him  his  career  of  almost  boundless  useful- 
ness, and  placed  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  his 
hand. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Roy,  his  former  pastor  at  Plymouth  Church, 
Chicago,  mentions  a  sermon  which  he  heard  Mr.  Moody 
preach  on  ;<  The  Compassion  of  Christ,"  in  which  he  seemed 
like  a  man  inspired,  and  under  which  the  great  audience  was 
moved  like  a  forest  swept  by  the  winds.  When  it  was  over 
the  doctor  inquired  of  him  how  he  had  prepared  such  a  ser- 
mon. He  answered,  "  I  got  to  thinking  the  other  day  about 
the  compassion  of  Christ ;  so  I  took  the  Bible  and  began  to 
read  it  over  to  find  out  what  it  said  on  that  subject.  I 
prayed  over  the  texts  as  I  went  along,  until  the  thought  of 
his  infinite  compassion  overpowered  me,  and  I  could  onlv  lie 
on  the  floor  of  my  study,  with  my  face  in  the  open  Bible, 
and  cry  like  a  little  child." 

Desiring  still  deeper  insight  into  the  word  of  God  Mr. 
Moody  went  to  England,  and  joined  himself  to  the  little  band 
of  evangelists  and  Bible  workers  at  the  mission  of  Mr.  Penne- 


260     Moody  :  ins  Words — Work — Workers. 

father  in  the  north  of  London,  and  also  at  the  orphanage  of 
Mr.  Miiller,  at  Bristol. 

Here,  in  company  with  those  like-minded,  he  devoted  the 
tireless  energies  of  his  nature  to  diligent  study  of  the  word 
of  God,  and  after  an  absence  of  only  a  few  months  returned 
to  Chicago,  evidently  endued  with  new  power,  where  he  at 
once  became  an  acknowledged  leader  in  Bible  study  and 
Bible  work. 

At  one  of  the  farewell  meetings  in  Chicago,  an  old  friend 
who  used  to  be  a  co-worker  with  Mr.  Moody  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
relates  this  incident,  which  was  intended  to  recall  his  earlier 
methods  of  teaching,  and  show  by  contrast  the  excellence  of 
the  Bible  method.  He  said  :  "  I  have  been  watching  for 
thirty  years  for  people  who  could  preach  so  that  sinners  would 
be  converted,  and  I  have  found  such  a  man.  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  has  been  set  forth,  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  honored, 
and  hearts  have  been  melted  by  the  love  of  our  Father  in 
heaven.  Some  years  ago  old  Father  Fife,  as  we  called  him, 
came  into  one  of  Mr.  Moody's  meetings ;  and  afterward, 
when  we  weie  taking  dinner  together,  Mr.  Moody  asked  him 
how  he  enjoyed  the  meeting.  With  a  roll  of  his  eyes,  which 
was  his  peculiar  habit,  he  said,  as  he  took  up  his  great  straw 
hat :  '  I  held  this  old  hat  to  catch  what  I  could,  and  I  found  a 
great  deal  of  chaff  and  a  little  wheat.'  But  now  if  I  had  a 
speaking-tube  up  to  Father  Fife,  who  is  gone  to  glory,  I 
would  say  to  him,  '  It  is  running  all  wheat  now.'  Brother 
Moody  used  to  preach  his  experience,  and  there  wasn't  much 
wheat  in  that ;  but  now  he  preaches  the  word  of  God,  and 
that  is  all  wheat." 

Mr.  Moody  continually  insists  that  the  Gospel  is  not  a  truth 
to  be  learned  by  exploration,  but  one  to  be  taken  as  a  reve- 
lation. 

It  is  the  Scripture,  and  the  Scripture  only,  that  is  profitable 
for  doctrine;  hence  in  his  system  of  theology,  as  it  appears 
in  his  sermons  and  Bible  interpretations,  one  looks  in  vain 
for  any  thing  original.  Nay,  more,  Mr.  Moody  has  no  faith 
even  in  logic  ;  he  accepts  no  human  argument  as  sufficient  to 


Moody's  Theology — Introduction.       261 

establish  a  proposition  relating  to  supernatural  things.  U 
the  matter  is  treated  of  in  the  Bible,  that  is  the  place  to  find 
out  about  it  ;  if  not,  it  cannot  possibly  be  of  any  consequence. 
The  Bible  is  God's  book  of  theology,  and  is  not  only  profit- 
able but  sufficient.  There  may  be  other  things  in  religion 
that  are  curious  and  pleasant  ;  but  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to 
think  about  them  while  there  are  so  many  things  in  the  word 
of  God  that  are  so  much  better. 

Solomon  knew  all  the  trees  and  plants,  from  the  cedar  of 
Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  on  the  wall,  but  what  good  did  it  do 
him?  If  he  had  spent  his  time  the  way  his  father  did,  in 
meditating  on  the  law  of  the  Lord,  he  would  have  been 
a  great  deal  wiser,  as  well  as  better,  man. 

"Why  do  evangelists  pay  so  little  attention  to  the  progress 
of  science  ?"  was  one  of  the  questions  put  to  Mr.  Moody  at  a 
Christian  convention. 

*'  Because  they  have  something  so  much  better,"  was  his 
prompt  reply. 

If,  then,  in  Mr.  Moody's  Doctrinal  Discourses,  any  thing 
usually  found  in  Systematic  Theology  be  wanting,  its  absence 
may  be  accounted  for  on  the  theory  that  its  place  is  taken 
by  something  else,  which  this  great  Bible  evangelist  thinks  is 
more  important. 


262      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


MR.  MOODY'S  THEOLOGY. 


GOD. 

HIS     LOVE. 


EY  text  is  on  fire  to-night,  [pointing  to  the  gas- 
light letters  above  the  platform,  "God  IS  Love,"] 
and  I  wish  it  might  be  burned  into  all  your  hearts. 
There  is  no  text  that  the  devil  has  tried  so  hard  to  blot 
out  of  men's  minds  as  this. 

We  used  to  have  that  text  in  letters  of  light  over  in 
the  North  Side  Church,  and  one  night  a  poor  wanderer 
caught  a  glimpse  of  it  through  the  door,  which  was 
slightly  open.  "  '  God  is  love.'  I  don't  believe  that,"  he 
exclaimed.  "  I  don't  believe  that  God  loves  me."  But 
he  went  along  for  a  few  blocks,  with  the  text  ringing  in 
his  ears,  till  at  last  he  came  back,  stayed  through  the 
service,  and  at  the  close  of  it  I  found  him  weeping  bit- 
terly. The  text  had  broken  his  heart,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  he  was  happily  converted. 

Some  people  wonder  why  God  should  love  such  sin- 
ners as  we  are.  Well,  I  suppose  it  is  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple that  the  sun  shines.  The  sun  is  light,  and  can't 
help  shining ;  God  is  love,  and  he  can't  help  loving. 

Let  us  not  think  of  God  as  we  do  of  one  another.  If  a 
man  receives  a  wrong  from  another  he  casts  him  off;  not 
so  with  God.     He   hates  sin  with  a  perfect  hatred,  but 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — God.  263 

he  Imcs  the  sinner  with  a  perfect  love:  and  if  you  are 
finally  lost  in  hell,  it  will  be  in  spite  of  the  infinite  love 
of  God.  In  John  xiii,  1,  it  is  said  of  Jesus,  that  "having 
loved  his  own  which  were  in  the  world,  he  loved  them 
unto  the  end."  lie  loved  Judas,  who  betrayed  him  ;  he 
loved  Peter,  who  denied  him  ;  he  loved  all  the  disciples, 
though,  in  the  trying  moment,  every  one  of  them  forsook 
him  and  fled. 

In  Isaiah  xlix,  15,  God  asks  the  question,  "Can  a 
woman  forget  her  sucking  child,  that  she  should  not  have 
compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb?  yea,  they  may  for- 
get, yet  will  I  not  forget  thee."  There  is'no  love  equal 
to  that  of  a  mother,  except  it  be  God's.  A  wife  may  for- 
sake her  husband,  but  a  mother  will  cleave  to  her  son, 
even  though  he  is  denounced  as  a  criminal,  tried  for  his 
life,  and  finally  hanged.  To  the  last  she  stands  by  him, 
and  when  they  give  his  poor  broken  body  over  to  her,  she 
covers  his  dead  face  with  tears.  But  God  loves  us  better 
than  that.     A  mother  may  forget,  but  God  never  does. 

In  Jeremiah  xxxi,  3,  God  says  to  Israel,  "  I  have 
loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love." 

"Well,"  says  one,  "I  believe  that.  That  suits  me  a 
great  deal  better  than  the  sermon  of  last  night  about  the 
blood."  Don't  make  a  mistake,  my  friend.  God  loves 
sinners,  but  he  cannot  bring  them  into  heaven  unless 
they  repent  and  give  their  hearts  to  him.  If  he  was  to 
do  that  they  would  raise  the  flag  of  revolt  close  beside 
his  throne,  and  there  would  be  war  in  heaven  again. 

A  lady  came  to  me  in  England,  and  told  me  of  one 
of  her  sons  who  was  an  exile  from  his  home.  He  had 
written  to  ask  that   he  might  come  back,  and   yet   his 


264      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

parents  did  not  dare  to  bring  him  back,  for  they  thought 
he  would  be  sure  to  turn  their  home  into  a  hell,  and  ruin 
all  the  rest  of  the  children. 

An  old  gentleman  in  New  York  had  a  wicked  son, 
who  had  already  sent  his  gray-haired  mother  to  the 
grave  with  a  broken  heart ;  and  one  night,  when  the  boy 
was  going  out,  the  father  begged  him  to  stay  with  him, 
saying,  "  You  have  not  spent  one  evening  at  home  since 
your  mother  died.  Will  you  not  stay  one  night  with  me?" 

"  No,"  said  the  boy,  "  I  will  not." 

Then  the  father  threw  himself  down  in  the  open  door 
and  said,  "  My  son,  you  are  stronger  than  I,  but  you 
shall  not  go  out  to-night,  unless  you  go  over  my  poor  old 
body." 

And  that  wicked  son  leaped  over  his  father's  body,  and 
rushed  away  to  his  old  companions  in  sin.  Just  so  it  is 
with  a  great  many  sinners,  who  rush  to  destruction  in 
spite  of  all  the  tokens  of  the  love  and  mercy  of  God. 

In  Isaiah  xxxviii,  17,  the  prophet  cries  out,  "Thou 
hast  cast  all  my  sins  behind  thy  back."  I  like  that  word 
"  all."  If  all  my  sins  were  cast  behind  my  back,  the  devil 
might  find  them  and  bring  them  up  to  ruin  me;  but  when 
they  are  cast  behind  His  back  nobody  can  ever  find  them 
again.  There  are  four  expressions  used  for  putting  away 
sins.  One  is  "  As  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  so  far 
hath  he  removed  our  transgression  from  us  ;  "  another  is, 
that  He  puts  them  away  "as  a  cloud;"  another,  He 
casts  them  into  the  sea  of  forgetfulness ;  and  then  this 
one,  He  casts  them  behind  his  back. 

Do  not  try  to  put  away  your  own  sins.  You  cannot 
forgive  yourself  for  robbing  another  man  of  a  thousand 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — God.  265 

dollars.     You  may  have  nothing  against,  him,  but  he  has 

something  against  you.  Come  to  God  and  ask  him  to 
put  away  your  sins  for  the  sake  of  the  blood  of  his  Son, 
and  he  will  put  them  away  so  far  that  nobody  shall  ever 
be  able  to  find  them  again. 

In  Isaiah  lxiii,  9,  we  read,  "  In  all  their  affliction  he 
was  afflicted."  God  pities  us.  Our  lost  condition  moves 
his  heart,  so  that  just  as  he  hastened  clown  to  Eden  after 
Adam's  sin,  and  dealt  with  him  in  grace,  he  will  come  to 
any  sinner  who  will  receive  him,  and  share  his  sorrows, 
and  take  away  his  sins. 

A  gentleman  from  Manchester,  England,  visited  Chi- 
cago just  before  the  fire,  and  when  he  went  home  he 
tried  to  tell  what  a  wonderful  city  it  was,  but  nobody 
cared  to  listen  to  him.  Pretty  soon  the  news  came  over 
the  wires  that  the  city  was  on  fire,  and  that  a  hundred 
thousand  people  were  burned  out  of  house  and  home, 
and  were  actually  in  danger  of  perishing  out  on  the 
prairie,  unless  assistance  should  come  at  once.  Then 
that  city  was  full  of  interest  about  Chicago  ;  men  were 
in  tears,  and  what  was  better,  they  were  giving  their 
money  by  thousands  to  send  to  the  sufferers. 

So  with  God.     Our  sorrows  cry  out  for  us  louder  than 

our  sins  cry  out  against  us.     He  feels  his  heart  going 

out   to  us,  and  sends  his  Son  to  redeem   us.     Here  in 

Revelation  i,  5,  it  speaks  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  "loved 

us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood  ; "  not 

washed  us  and  loved  us,  but  loved  us  first  and  washed 

us  afterward  ;  loved  us  in  spite  of  the  defilement  of  our 

sins. 

In    Ephesians   hi,    18,  we   are  told   about   the  height, 
12 


266      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  depth,  and  length,  and  breadth  of  the  love  of  God. 
My  friends,  if  you  want  to  know  this,  come  to  Calvary. 
Nothing  will  show  you  the  love  of  God  to  sinners  so  well 
as  the  Cross  of  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ. 

When  the  French  and  Prussian  war  was  going  on,  and 
the  Commune  was  imprisoning  people  and  putting  them 
to  death,  they  took  a  Roman  Catholic  archbishop  and 
put  him  into  a  prison  which  had  an  opening  in  the  door 
in  the  shape  of  a  cross ;  and  when  they  went  to  bring 
him  out  to  die  they  found  that  he  had  written  over  the 
ends  of  the  cross  thus  : —  » 

Height. 

Length.  «^-" 


Breadth. 


Depth. 

Ah !  that  man  had  been  to  Calvary. 

Some  people  say,  "  I  don't  see  why  I  have  so  many 
troubles  and  afflictions,  if  the  Lord  loves  me  so  much." 
Well,  that  is  just  the  very  proof  that  he  does  love  you. 
That  father  who  lets  his  son  go  on  in  the  way  to  death 
and  destruction  without  correcting  him  is  the  one  who 
does  not  love  him.  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chas- 
teneth." 

In  Romans  viii,  28,  we  are  told  that  "  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God."  A  member 
of  my  family  was  sick  one  night,  so  I  got  a  prescription 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — God.  267 

from  a  doctor  and  went  to  the  druggist  to  have  it  made 
up.  He  took  a  little  out  of  one  bottle,  and  a  little  out 
of  another,  and  another,  and  another,  putting  them  all 
into  the  same  bottle,  and  gave  it  to  me,  saying  it  was  all 
right.  So  you  see  these  different  medicines  all  "  worked 
together"  for  the  good  of  the  patient.  So  with  all  things 
in  God's  providence  and  grace— bitter  and  sweet,  pain 
and  pleasure,  joy  and  sorrow — all  things  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  love  God. 

Paul  understood  this  love  of  God.  When  they  put 
the  thirty-nine  stripes  on  him,  and  stoned  him,  and  cast 
him  into  prison,  he  would  say  to  himself,  "'All  things' 
— and  these  are  some  of  them — work  together  for  my 
eood."  He  knew  he  loved  God;  the  devil  couldn't 
make  him  doubt  that,  and  so  every  thing  was  all  right 
for  him.  If  it  hadn't  been  for  those  prisons  we  might 
not  have  had  those  epistles  of  his :  we  haven't  any  of 
his  sermons,  they  have  all  been  lost;  but  these  epistles 
are  ours,  and  I  doubt  not  that  thousands  of  people  have- 
gone  up  to  heaven  and  met  the  grand  old  apostle,  and 
said  to  him,  "  I  thank  God  for  that  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians ;  "  "  I  thank  God  for  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians." 

Some  one  may  say,  "  Of  course  God  loves  them  that 
love  him."  Well,  I  used  to  preach  that  half-way  doctrine 
once;  but  when  I  was  over  in  Dublin,  in  1867,  a  young 
man  came  to  me— he  didn't  look  as  if  he  were  more  than 
seventeen  years  old — and  asked  if  I  wouldn't  like  to  have 
him  come  to  America  and  preach  along  with  me.  I  did 
not  want  him.  for  he  didn't  look  as  if  he  could  do  much 
preaching,  so  I  came  off.  and  didn't  let  him  know  when 
I  sailed.     After  awhile  I  got  a  letter  from  him,  saying 


26S      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

he  was  in  New  York,  and  that  he  would  come  to  Chicago 
and  preach  for  me  if  I  wished  it.  I  wrote  him  in  reply, 
telling  him  he  must  come  and  see  me  if  he  ever  came  to 
Chicago,  and  pretty  soon,  sure  enough,  he  wrote  to  say 
that  he  would  be  with  me  on  Thursday  of  that  week.  I 
was  just  going  off  to  Iowa  to  be  gone  till  Sunday,  so  I 
told  my  people  they  might  let  the  young  Englishman 
preach  on  a  week  night,  and  I  went  away  feeling  pretty 
anxious  about  it. 

The  first  thing  when  I  got  home  on  Saturday  night 
I  asked  about  my  young  preacher.  My  wife  said  he 
spoke  very  well,  but  that  he  preached  some  different 
doctrines  from  me.  Then,  of  course,  I  didn't  like  him. 
But  we  went  to  church  on  Sunday,  and  I  noticed  there 
was  a  large  congregation,  and  that  they  were  all  bring- 
ing their  Bibles.  He  had  got  them  in  that  way  in  two 
evenings.  When  he  gave  out  his  text  I  noticed  a  smile 
running  round  the  audience.  It  was  the  third  chapter 
of  John  and  the  sixteenth  verse  :  "  For  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life."  The  people  were  so  much  interested  that  a 
crowd  filled  the  church  in  the  evening,  when  he  took  the 
same  text  again  ;  and  so  wonderfully  did  he  explain  it 
that  we  asked  him  to  preach  every  night  that  week. 

The  week  was  a  memorable  one.  Night  after  night 
Mr.  Moorehouse  preached  to  immense  congregations, 
taking  the  same  text  every  time,  until  he  made  the  love 
of  God  appear  the  central  truth  of  the  whole  Bible.  At 
the  close  of  the  seventh  sermon  from  the  same  words, 
he  said  : — 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— God.  269 

"  If  I  were  to  die  to-night,  and  go  up  to  heaven,  and 
there  meet  Gabriel,  who  stands  In  the  presence  of  God; 
and  if  I  were  to  ask  him  how  much  God  loves  sinners, 
this  is  what  I  think  lie  would  say:  'God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life.'  " 

He  spoiled  one  or  two  of  my  sermons  for  me :  I  have 
never  seen  them  since;  but  he  showed  me  that  God  loved 
sinners  in  spite  of  their  sins. 

I  pity  the  man  who  goes  down  to  hell  with  that  text 
hanging  over  him.  My  friends,  don't  forget  that  it  was 
while  we  were  yet  sinners  that  Christ  died  for  us.  I 
have  been  into  some  homes  in  this  city  that  were  so 
vile  and  dirt)'  that  I  couldn't  stay  there  five  minutes  ; 
but  Jesus  Christ  waits  to  come  into  the  heart  of  the 
vilest  sinner  and  take  up  his  residence  there.  It  isn't 
because  we  are  lovely,  but  because  he  is  love,  that  Christ 
died  for  us,  and  offers  to  come  and  dwell  with  us.  "  He 
that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God  ;  for  God  is  love  ;  " 
and  again,  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins." 

Love  always  grows  as  it  descends.  The  mother  loves 
her  child  more  than  the  child  loves  its  mother.  Just  so 
God  loves  us  more  than  we  can  ever  love  him. 

The  badge  of  discipleship  which  Christ  himself  or- 
dained was  their  love  to  one  another.  Some  people  tell 
me  they  don't  have  any  doubts  about  God's  love  to  them, 
but  they  can't  find  out  whether  they  love  Cod  ;  and  I  just 
tell  them   to  test   themselves  by  the   fourth  chapter  of 


2;o      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

St.  John's  First  Epistle,  and  they  can  very  easily  find  out. 
If  you  have  any  hard  feelings  in  your  heart  against  any 
man  or  woman,  you  may  be,  sure  the  love  of  the  Father 
is  not  in  you. 

I  remember  hearing,  a  few  years  ago,  of  a  scholar  in  a 
Sunday-school  who  was  conquered  by  love.  It  was  a  boy 
whom  nobody  could  manage,  and  at  last  it  was  thought 
he  would  have  to  be  turned  out,  when  a  young  lady  of 
wealth  and  position  said,  "  I  wish  you  would  let  me  have 
that  boy."  The  superintendent  replied,  "  If  none  of  the 
men  can  manage  him  I  am  quite  sure  you  could  not.  If 
he  talks  so  vulgar  that  the  men  can't  have  him  in  their 
classes,  I  am  sure  you  cannot." 

"  Let  me  try  him,"  she  said. 

The  next  Sunday  he  put  the  boy  in  her  class,  and  for  a 
few  Sundays  he  heard  of  no  trouble.  Every  thing  went 
on  well.  But  one  Sunday  he  broke  the  rules  of  the  class, 
and  when  she  corrected  him  he  spit  in  her  face.  She 
took  her  handkerchief  and  wiped  it  away,  and  said 
nothing.  At  the  close  of  the  school  she  said,  "  I  wish 
you  would  walk  along  home  with  me,  and  have  a  talk 
with  me." 

"  I  wont.  I  wouldn't  be  seen  on  the  street  with 
you.  I  am  not  coming  to  this  old  Sunday-school  any 
more." 

"Well,"  she  said,  "wont  you  let  me  walk  home  with 
you  ?  I  don't  want  to  scold  you  ;  I  want  to  talk  with 
you." 

"  I  wont.     I  wont  be  seen  with  you." 

So  she  tried  another  course  ;  she  tried  the  curiosity 
course,  and  said :  "  I  wish  you  would  come  to  my  house 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— God.  271 

on  Tuesday  morning;  I  shall  not  be  home  on  Tuesday, 
but  you  just  come  and  ring  the  door-bell,  and  tell  the 
servant  there  is  a  bundle  for  you  on  my  bureau." 

"  I  wont ;   you  may  keep  your  old  bundle." 

Still  she  felt  pretty  sure  he  would  come.  After  he  got 
over  his  mad  fit  he  began  to  want  to  see  what  was  in 
the  bundle,  and  on  Tuesday  morning  he  was  there.  The 
servant  understood  the  matter,  and  gave  him  the  bundle. 
The  little  fellow  opened  it,  and  there  was  a  little  jacket, 
a  little  necktie,  and  a  note  from  his  teacher  telling  him 
how  much  she  loved  him,  and  that  every  morning  since 
he  had  been  in  the  class  she  had  been  praying  for  him 
that  he  might  be  a  good  boy  and  a  good  man. 

The  next  morning,  before  she  was  up,  the  servant 
came  and  said  a  little  boy  was  down  stairs,  who  wanted 
to  see  her.  When  she  came  down  she  found  him  lying 
on  the  sofa,  crying  as  if  his  heart  would  break. 

"What  is  the  trouble?"  she  asked. 

"  I  have  had  no  peace  since  I  received  your  note. 
You  have  been  so  kind  to  me,  and  I  have  been  so  unkind 
to  you  !  I  hope  you  will  forgive  me." 

The  teacher  said,  "  Certainly,"  and  she  knelt  down 
and  prayed  for  him.  Love  conquered  him.  There  is 
nowhere  a  heart  so  hard  but  love  can  conquer  it. 

I  used  to  think  more  of  Christ  than  of  God.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  God  was  away  off  somewhere  sitting  on  his 
great  white  throne,  and  not  taking  any  interest  in  me. 
But  that  is  all  changed  now,  and  it  seems  now  to  me 
that  it  took  more  love  on  the  part  of  God  the  Father  to 
give  his  Son  to  die  for  us,  than  it  did  on  the  part  of  the 
Son  to  suffer. 


272      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Some  one  may  ask  how  it  happens  that  God  loves  us. 
The  answer  seems  easy — he  cannot  help  it.  "  God  is 
love ;  "  and  how  can  a  being  whose  nature  is  love  keep 
from  loving,  any  more  than  the  sun,  whose  nature  is 
light,  can  keep  from  shining?  But,  my  friends,  we  must 
not  fail  to  keep  in  mind  this  fact,  that  while  God  loves 
us  he  hates  our  sins. 

In  the  thirty-first  chapter  of  Jeremiah,  at  the  third 
verse,  we  have  these  words :  "  The  Lord  hath  appeared 
of  old  unto  me,  saying,  Yea,  I  have  loved  thee  with  an 
everlasting  love :  therefore  with  loving  kindness  have  I 
drawn  thee." 

Here,  then,  are  the  three  characteristics  of  the  love  of 
God.     It  is  unchangeable,  unfailing,  everlasting. 

God  leaves  no  doubt  about  his  love  in  any  man's 
mind  who  will  read  his  Book.  He  has  given  his  only 
Son  to  prove  it,  but  the  world  would  not  have  him, 
though  he  came  to  take  away  its  sins,  and  to  purchase 
an  eternal  redemption  for  them. 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Songs  of  Solomon  that  is 
very  precious  to  me.  It  is  this:  "  His  banner  over  me 
was  love." 

There  was  a  man  came  from  Europe  to  this  country 
a  year  or  two  ago,  and  he  became  dissatisfied,  and  went 
to  Cuba  in  1867,  when  they  had  that  great  civil  war  there. 
Finally  he  was  arrested  for  a  spy,  court-martialed,  and 
condemned  to  be  shot.  He  sent  for  the  American  con- 
sul and  the  English  consul,  and  these  two  men  were 
thoroughly  convinced  that  the  man  was  no  spy,  and  they 
went  to  one  of  the  Spanish  officers  and  said,  "  This  man 
you  have  condemned  to  be  shot  is  an  innocent  man." 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — God.  273 

"  Well,"  the  Spanish  officer  says,  "  the  man  has  been 
tried  by  our  laws  and  condemned  ;  the  law  must  take  its 
course;  the  man  must  die." 

The  next  morning  the  man  was  led  out ;  the  grave  was 
already  dug  for  him  ;  the  black  cap  was  put  on  him  ;  the 
soldiers  were  there  and  in  a  few  moments  the  man  would 
be  shot,  when  up  comes  a  carriage  just  in  time.  Out 
leaped  the  American  consul,  took  the  American  flag  and 
wrapped  it  around  the  condemned  man,  and  the  English 
consul  took  the  English  flag  and  wrapped  it  around  him, 
and  then  they  said  to  those  soldiers,  "  Fire  on  those  flags 
if  you  dare  !  " 

Not  a  man  dared  to  fire ;  there  were  two  great  gov- 
ernments behind  those  flags.  So  God  says  to  you,  my 
friends — to  every  one  of  you — "  Come  under  my  banner, 
come  under  the  banner  of  love,  come  under  the  banner 
of  heaven."  That  banner  covering  you  you  are  safe  ! 
That  it  may  float  over  every  soul  here  is  the  prayer  of 
my  heart.  God  don't  will  the  death  of  any  who  will 
come  under  his  banner  of  love. 


HIS    POWER. 

NOW  I  want  you  to  take  special  notice  of  the  words 
written  in  Jeremiah  xxxvi,  17:  "Ah  Lord  God!  behold, 
thou  hast  made  the  heaven  and  the  earth  by  thy  great 
power  and  stretched-out  arm,  and  there  is  nothing  too 
hard  for  thee." 

I  think  the  Lord  was  pleased  with  this  prayer  of  Jere- 
miah, for  he  responds  to  him  in  the  twenty-seventh  verse, 

"  Behold,  I  am  the  Lord,  the  God  of  all   flesh  :  is  there 
12* 


274      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

any  thing  too  hard  for  me?"  God  likes  to  have  his 
people  believe  that  there  is  nothing  too  hard  for  him. 
We  talk  about  Frederick  the  Great,  and  Alexander  the 
Great,  but  how  very  little  are  these  mighty  men  when 
we  come  to  compare  them  with  God.  If  Tyndall,  or 
Huxley,  or  Darwin  had  ever  created  any  light,  what  a 
sound  of  trumpets  there  would  have  been  about  it !  but 
we  read  in  the  Bible  the  very  simple  statement,  "And 
God  said,  Let  there  be  light :  and  there  was  light," — and 
that  is  all  there  is  said  about  it. 

Here  is  this  earth  of  ours,  twenty-five  thousand  miles 
around,  with  its  great  oceans,  and  its  great  mountains, 
and  its  great  rivers ;  and  yet  it  is  only  a  little  ball  that 
the  Lord  tosses  out  of  his  hand.  The  astronomers  tell 
us  that  the  sun  is  thirteen  hundred  thousand  times  larger 
than  the  earth.  What  seas,  what  mountains,  what  rivers 
there  must  be  there !  Besides  this,  there  are  eighty  mill- 
ions of  other  suns,  and  millions  upon  millions  of  other 
stars,  that  have  been  discovered ;  yet  I  suppose  these 
are  only  like  a  few  towns  and  villages  on  the  outskirts 
of  God's  great  empire.  Now  what  folly  to  try  to  measure 
God  with  our  little  rule  ! 

But  I  hear  somebody  saying,  "  If  God  is  so  great  as 
that,  he  will  not  condescend  to  trouble  himself  about 
such  an  insignificant  creature  as  I." 

This  is  all  wrong.  If  you  study  the  Bible,  you  will  find 
out  that  no  sooner  did  the  news  come  up  to  heaven  that 
Adam  had  fallen,  than  God  was  right  down  in  Eden  after 
him.  Men  sometimes  get  to  be  so  big  that  they  don't 
care  for  little  things,  but  God  never  does. 

We  are  all  the  time  limiting  God's  power  by  our  own 


Outlines  oi  Doctrine — God. 


:/3 


ideas.  There  is  a  drunkard  ;  the  appetite  for  strong  drink 
has  overcome  him  ;  he  has  actually  drunk  up  his  will. 
Well,  what  of  it  ?  He  who  said,  "  Let  there  be  light:  and 
there  was  light,"  can  just  as  easily  say, "  Let  there  be  life  : 
and  there  will  be  life."  The  man  may  pc  a  gambler,  a 
deist,  an  infidel  ;  the  woman  may  be  a  harlot,  and  her 
feet  may  begin  to  take  hold  on  hell ;  but  the  Lord,  who 
created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  wont  find  it  hard  to 
save  the  chief  of  sinners  if  they  will  only  give  their  wicked 
hearts  to  him.  Let  us  get  our  eyes  off  one  another  and 
fix  them  upon  God.     There  is  nothing  too  hard  for  him. 

Whenever  we  go  to  a  new  place  the  people  say,  "  O, 
yes ;  you  did  so  and  so  in  that  city,  but  this  place  is 
very  peculiar ;  there  are  special  difficulties  here  such  as 
you  have  never  met  before." 

Yes,  I  suppose  there  are  special  difficulties  in  every 
case,  but  these  obstacles  wont  stand  in  the  way  very  long 
when  God  rises  up  to  carry  on  his  work.  When  Mr. 
Sankey  and  I  first  started  out,  we  took  this  seventh  verse 
of  the  thirty-second  chapter  of  Jeremiah  for  our  motto, 
"  Ah  !  Lord  God,  .  .  .  there  is  nothing  too  hard  for  thee," 
and  we  always  had  great  success.  After  awhile  we 
thought  we  would  take  some  other  motto;  but  we 
couldn't  get  on  at  all  until  we  came  back  to  this  seven- 
teenth verse,  "  There  is  nothing  too  hard  for  thee." 

"And  of  his  fullness  have  all  we  received."  It  is  a 
very  common  fault  with  Christians  to  forget  the  Lord's 
fullness.  The)-  are  living  on  stale  manna,  and  trying 
to  get  happy  over  their  past  experience.  They  were 
converted  twenty  years  ago ;  and  they  seem  to  think 
that  tha  Lord  gave  them  a  blessing  which  was  to  last 


276      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

them  all  their  lives.  Not  so  ;  there  is  an  infinite  "  full- 
ness "  in  Christ,  and  they  who  believe  in  him  may  re- 
ceive of  it  all  the  time.  Ask  Enoch — he  received  of  the 
"  fullness,"  and  so  was  able  to  walk  with  God.  Ask 
Noah — he  was  *ble  to  live  and  preach  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years,  while  he  was  about  the  only  man  in  all  the 
world  who  believed  in  God,  and  this  he  could  do  because 
he  had  received  of  the  Lord's  "  fullness."  Ask  Abraham 
— he  was  able  to  offer  up  his  only  son  at  the  command 
of  God.  Ask  Joshua — he  received  the  "  fullness,"  and 
nobody  was  able  to  stand  before  him  all  the  days  of  his 
life. 

Now,  some  people  think  those  old  patriarchs  and 
prophets  were  a  different  kind  of  men  from  what  we  have 
in  these  days.  Not  at  all.  They  were  men  of  like  pas- 
sions with  us.  You  just  let  the  ministers  and  Christian 
workers  nowadays  get  filled  with  the  Lord's  "  fullness," 
and  they  will  be  like  giants  filled  with  new  wine. 

There  were  the  reformers  Knox,  Wesley,  Whitefield, 
and  Newton.  Were  they  any  greater  men  in  intellect 
than  a  great  many  others  in  their  time  ?  By  no  means  ; 
but  they  had  received  of  the  Lord's  "  fullness."  That  was 
what  made  them  so  great  and  strong  in  his  work.  Take 
the  twelve  apostles,  they  were  not  men  of  learning  and 
science ;  they  were  not  great  orators  ;  they  were  not 
rich,  had  no  social  position.  But  just  think  of  a  Galilean 
fisherman  writing  such  a  book  as  the  Gospel  of  John  ! 
There  isn't  a  learned  man  in  all  the  world  who  could 
make  such  a  book,  unless  he  had  received  the  Lord's 
"  fullness." 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      277 


JESUS  CHRIST: 

HIS      CHARACTER      AND      OFFICES. 

PROPHECIES    CONCERNING    CHRIST. 

JT^N  Second  Timothy,  third  chapter  sixteenth  verse,  we 


jlr  N  Secon 
&   read," 


All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God.'' 
That  referred,  of  course,  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  is  a 
text  which  ought  to  be  preached  on  by  ministers  in 
these  days  who  have  their  doubts  about  the  inspiration 
of  the  Old  Testament,  while  they  profess  to  believe  in 
that  of  the  New. 

When  Christ  was  on  earth  he  was  constantly  referring 
to  the  Scriptures;  by  which  term,  of  course,  he  meant 
the  Old  Testament,  as  there  were  no  other  Scriptures 
then  in  existence. 

There  are  two  hundred  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment concerning  Jesus  Christ,  every  solitary  one  of  which 
has  been  fulfilled  ;  and  yet  there  are  some  intelligent 
persons  who  say  they  really  don't  think  that  the  Bible 
is  inspired.  Such  people  ought  to  remember  that  "  the 
Scriptures  cannot  be  broken." 

Moses,  and  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms,  all  testify 
of  Christ.  If  you  turn  to  the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of 
Luke  and  twenty-seventh  verse,  where  Christ,  after  his 
resurrection,  was  talking  with  the  two  disciples  as  he 
walked  with  them  to  Emmaus,  you  will  find  these  words  : 
*'  And  beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  he  ex- 
pounded unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  con- 
cerning himself."     Then  in  the  forty-fourth  verse  of  the 


2-8      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

same  chapter:  "And  he  said  unto  them,  These  are  the 
words  which  I  spake  unto  you  while  I  was  yet  with  you, 
that  all  things  must  be  fulfilled  which  were  written  in  the 
law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms, 
concerning  me.  Then  opened  he  their  understanding, 
that  they  might  understand  the  Scriptures." 

There  was  never  so  much  said  about  the  birth,  life, 
death,  and  resurrection  of  any  man  as  about  that  of 
Jesus.  Mark  and  John  say  nothing  about  Christ's  birth. 
We  are  indebted  to  Matthew  and  Luke  for  all  we  know 
about  it.  For  four  thousand  years,  from  the  time  that 
God  made  the  promise  in  Eden,  men  had  been  looking 
for  this  child.  The  mothers  of  Israel  had  been  praying 
that  they  might  be  the  mothers  of  this  child,  and  now, 
as  we  come  into  the  first  chapter  of  Luke,  we  find  the 
long,  dark  night  had  rolled  away. 

We  are  told  that  Zacharias,  the  priest,  received  a  visit 
from  the  angel  Gabriel,  and  that  he  was  somewhat  stag- 
gered by  the  message.  If  you  turn  to  Daniel  you  will 
find  that  it  was  the  same  angel  that  visited  that  prophet 
while  he  was  praying. 

Gabriel  is  only  recorded  by  name  as  having  made 
three  visits  to  this  world,  and  every  time  he  came  it  was 
on  something  connected  with  Christ. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Luke  we  find  this  same  Gabriel 
visiting  Mary  at  Nazareth,  and  revealing  to  her  the  great 
event  that  was  to  befall  her.  I  call  your  attention  to 
what  Gabriel  said  to  her  about  her  son  :  "  He  shall  be 
great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest."  So 
we  have  the  right  to  call  him  the  Son  of  God,  because  the 
angel  said  he  should  be  called  the  "Son  of  the  Highest." 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.     279 

The  birth  of  John  was  not  a  secret ;  and  so  you  will 
find  that,  notwithstanding-  the  claims  of  the  infidels  to 
the  contrary,  Christ's  birth  was  not  a  secret. 

The  emperor  of  Rome  issued  a  decree  that  the  whole 
world  should  pay  a  tax,  and  that  every  one  should  repair 
to  his  native  place  and  be  registered.  That  is  one  of  the 
most  marvelous  things  in  the  whole  word  of  God.  I  am 
told  by  very  good  Bible  students  that  that  impost  was 
not  collected  for  nine  years  afterward.  The  child  Jesus 
would  have  been  born  at  Nazareth  had  not  the  emperor 
sent  out  this  decree.  In  consequence  thereof  Mary  went 
to  Bethlehem,  and  the  child  was  born  there  ;  in  other 
words,  God  set  the  whole  world  in  motion  to  bring  the 
virgin  to  Bethlehem,  so  that  his  word  might  be  fulfilled. 
If  that  child  had  been  born  at  Nazareth  the  Scriptures 
would  not  have  been  true,  and  if  the  Scriptures  can  be 
broken  in  one  place,  they  may  in  another. 

What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  passover  if  you 
take  Christ  out  of  the  Old  Testament  ?  What  are  you 
going  to  do  with  the  atonement — the  sacrifices — the  bra- 
zen serpent — the  sin-offering?     What  do  they  all  mean? 

The  Old  Testament  is  a  sealed  book  if  you  take  Christ 
out  of  it.  He  is  the  key  of  the  word,  and  he  unlocks  the 
Old  Testament  just  as  he  does  the  New. 

Philip  found  Christ  in  the  Old  Testament  at  the  fifty- 
third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  (Acts  viii,  30-35,)  and  you  may 
find  him  in  the  same  place,  and  in  hundreds  of  other 
places  in  the  writings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets. 

Study  the  Book  of  Genesis.  You  will  find  Christ 
there.  "The  Seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  ser- 
pent's head." 


28o      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Take  Exodus.  That  may  be  called  the  book  of  re- 
demption. Leviticus  is  the  book  of  sacrifices.  They 
both  abound  in  typical  references  to  Christ. 

There  is  no  other  way  of  understanding  the  entire 
system  of  Old  Testament  worship  except  as  types  and 
prophecies  of  Christ. 


ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  CHRIST'S  BIRTH. 
THE  angels  came  to  the  shepherds  and  announced  the 
birth  of  Christ.  I  have  an  idea  that  they  thought  the 
whole  world  would  rise  as  one  man  and  receive  him  with 
open  arms  as  the  Messiah.  I  don't  think  they  would 
have  imagined  men  to  be  so  blind  and  foolish  as  to  not 
receive  the  Prince  of  heaven  with  joy.  When  a  prince 
comes  to  this  country  every  body  wants  to  do  him 
honor ;  but  here  was  a  Prince  from  heaven,  and  it  would 
seem  strange  that  He  should  not  be  received  with  joy 
and  gladness. 

The  angels  said  to  the  shepherds,  "  We  bring  you 
glad  tidings  " — not  bad  tidings.  Now  I  guarantee  that 
nine-tenths  of  the  people  in  Chicago  think  the  Gospel 
bad  tidings  ;  they  do  not  want  it ;  that  is  the  trouble 
with  most  people.  They  are  afraid  of  good  tidings,  and 
that  just  shows  the  depravity  of  men's  hearts.  I  never 
knew  a  person  in  my  life  who  did  not  like  to  hear  good 
news,  and  what  better  news  can  a  man  receive  than  that 
he  has  a  Saviour? 

There  is  no  one  in  this  audience  but  requires  a  Saviour. 
How  many  of  those  women  here  try  to  keep  their  temper, 
and  cannot  do  it  ?     How  many  men  are  trying  to  gain  a 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      281 

victory  over  their  passions  and  lusts,  and  fail?  The  fact 
is,  we  all  need  a  Saviour;  and  God,  who  knew  just  what 
the  world  needed,  gave  the  very  gift  that  meets  our  case. 
What  folly,  what  madness,  that  all  the  world  do  not  ac- 
cept the  gift  with  joy  ! 

One  word  about  Joseph.  He  just  appears  on  the 
horizon,  and  then  fades  away,  and  we  see  no  more  of 
him.  The  last  we  hear  of  him  is  when  he  appears  in 
the  temple  with  Christ,  when  he  is  twelve  years  old. 

Now  about  Christ's  being  born  cf  a  woman. 

Some  ask  why  he  did  not  come  from  heaven  in  glory 
and  grandeur. 

I  suppose  he  could  have  done  so  ;  he  could  have  come 
from  the  throne  in  a  golden  chariot,  and  have  gone 
through  the  world  as  an  angel  of  light.  But  if  a  man 
wants  to  be  a  mediator  he  must  be  a  friend  of  both  par- 
tics,  and  how  could  Christ  have  been  a  mediator  between 
us  and  God  if  he  had  not  taken  upon  himself  our  nature  ? 
He  had  to  take  upon  himself  our  nature  in  order  to 
mediate  between  God  and  man.  Some  say  it  was  a 
mystery  that  God  ever  permitted  sin  to  come  into  the 
world,  but  it  was  a  greater  mystery  that  God  ever  sent 
his  Son  to  bear  the  brunt  of  it. 


THE    DIVINITY    OE    CHRIST. 

A  MAN  asked  me  the  other  day  if  there  was  any  place 
in  the  Bible  where  Christ  expressly  said  that  he  was 
any  thing  more  than  a  man.  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
Gospel  of  John  is  full  proof  of  the  divinity  of  Christ.  It 
was  for  that  purpose  chiefly  that  his  Gospel  was  written. 


282      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

When  the  Pharisees  came  to  Christ  with  the  question, 
"Which  was  the  great  commandment?"  he  turned  upon 
them  with  the  question,  "  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  whose 
son  is  he?  "     They  said,  "  The  son  of  David." 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Christ,  "  how  is  it  that  David  called 
him  Lord  ?  "  And  they  were  confounded,  and  asked  him 
no  more  questions  from  that  day.  The  fact  is,  the  Jews 
did  not  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  want 
to  say  right  here,  if  men  don't  believe  that  the  whole 
Bible  is  gone.  If  a  man  is  wrong  on  the  divinity  of 
our  Lord,  he  is  wrong  on  every  thing.  We  must  get 
the  foundation  right  before  we  attempt  to  build. 

But  let  us  go  still  further.  I  am  willing  to  summons 
the  very  devils  of  hell.  When  Christ  came  near  a  man 
possessed  with  a  devil,  the  devil  cried  out,  "  What  have 
I  to  do  with  thee,  Jesus,  thou  Son  of  the  most  high  God? 
I  adjure  thee  by  God,  that  thou  torment  me  not."  (Mark 
v,  7.)  Even  the  very  devils  testified  that  he  was  the  Son 
of  God. 

Next  take  the  high  priest,  who,  as  president  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  was  there  when  the  verdict  of  death  was  pro- 
nounced. What  does  he  say?  He  put  him  under  oath, 
and  asked  him  if  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  Jesus  an- 
swered, •'  Thou  hast  said  ;  "  that  is,  "  I  am."  That  is  the 
very  thing  we  glory  in  ;  we  believe  he  is  the  Son  of  God. 

In  one  sentence,  I  think,  John  has  settled  the  question 
of  the  divinity  of  Christ.  "  In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God."  Indeed,  the  whole  object  of  this  Gospel  is  to 
teach  us  to  believe  in  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  to 
receive  him  as  our   divine  redeemer  and  God. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      2S3 

If  Jesus  Christ  were  not  the  Son  of  God  we  arc  guilt}' 
of  the  very  worst  sin,  because  the  very  first  command- 
ment is,  "Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me." 
Look  at  the  millions  of  people  who  would  be  guilt}-  ol 
idolatry  if  Christ  were  not  God  in  the  flesh.  Think  of 
those  who  have  poured  out  their  blood  to  establish  and 
maintain  this  truth!  What  an  impostor  he  was  if  he 
were  not  God  in  the  flesh  ! 

In  the  eleventh  chapter  Christ  says,  "I  am  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life;"  and  concerning  his  own  life,  he 
says,  "  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down  and  power  to  take  it 
again."     No  one  less  than  God  can  do  that. 

But  again,  if' Christ  were  not  divine  what  are  we  to  do 
with  suchjtexts  as: — 

"  I  and  my  Father  are  one."  John  x,  30. 

"  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am."  John  viii,  58. 

"  My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work."  John  v, 
17,  18. 

"I  am  the  Son  of  God."  John  x,  36-38. 

"  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father."  John 
xiv,  9. 

"  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my 
name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst."   Matt,  xviii,  20. 

"  All  things  are  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father." 
Matt,  xi,  27. 

"I  [Jesus I  am  the  root  and  the  offspring  of  David." 
Rev.  xxii,  16. 


284      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


WHAT   THINK    YE    OF    CHRIST? 

THIS  question  is  a  legitimate,  practical  one,  which  every 
preacher  has  the  right  to  ask,  and  one  which,  if  I  had 
time,  I  would  like  to  put  to  every  one  here  personally. 
What  think  ye  of  Christ?  Whose  son  is  he?  Did  he 
come  from  heaven,  and  was  he  with  God  when  the  morn- 
ing stars  sang  together?  Is  it  true  that  he  was  with 
God  when  the  foundations  of  this  world  were  laid  ? 
That  is  the  question,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance. 
Men  ought  to  make  up  their  minds  and  decide  who 
Christ  is. 

There  is  something  remarkable  about  the«sayings  of 
Christ ;  they  can  be  read  over  and  over  again,  and  every 
time  you  read  them  you  see  something  new.  Christ  was 
a  child's  preacher.  He  preached  so  plain  that  little  chil- 
dren like  to  read  him  ;  and  yet  his  words  are  so  deep 
that  the  greatest  theologians  cannot  fathom  their  depths. 
I  would  like  you  to  compare  him  with  the  preachers  of 
the  present  day,  and  see  how  he  taught  the  people.  I 
am  told  by  travelers  in  Palestine  that  you  cannot  see  a 
thing  in  that  country  but  what  Jesus  used  to  illustrate 
his  sermons. 

I  would  like  to  take  him  up  as  a  preacher.  Look  at 
that  wonderful  sermon  recorded  in  the  fifth  of  Matthew. 
Infidels  have  tried  to  attack  that  sermon,  but  have  failed. 
It  has  done  more  good  than  any  sermon  ever  preached 
in  this  world. 

I  might  ask  what  you  think  of  him  as  a  physician  ? 
We    have    some    eminent    physicians    in    Chicago,  an  1 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      285 

people  are  proud  of  them.  Not  long  ago  a  lady 
suffering  from  diphtheria  told  me  that  her  doctor  had 
not  lost  a  case,  and  she  had  great  confidence  in  him. 
But  I  don't  think  you  can  find  a  doctor  in  Chicago 
who  has  not  lost  a  case  if  he  has  had  much  practice. 
Jesus  never  lost  a  case,  and  he  had  some  difficult 
ones.  Some  were  dead  even,  and  he  brought  them  back- 
to  life.  All  the  afflicted  had  to  do  was  to  press  up  to 
him  and  the  virtue  would  come  forth,  and  they  would 
be  healed.  In  some  parts  of  the  world  we  have  what 
are  called  Hospitals  for  Incurables.—  They  didn't  need 
such  institutions  in  Christ's  day ;  there  was  nothing  but 
what  he  could  cure. 

I  would  like  to  talk  of  him  as  a  Comforter.  Think 
how  he  comforted  the  wounded  and  broken  hearts.  But 
the  point  to-day  is,  "  Was  he  God-man  ?  "  Was  he  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  and  did  he  voluntarily  leave  heaven 
and  come  down  to  earth  and  suffer  and  die  that  we 
might  live?  The  only  way  to  find  this  out  is  to  study 
the  Scriptures. 

If  I  was  coming  to  Chicago  to  find  out  about  a  man, 
there  are  two  classes  of  people  I  would  like  to  meet — his 
friends  and  enemies,  so  that  I  could  hear  both  sides. 
Now,  I  propose  to  bring  up  witnesses,  and  I  want  to 
make  you  a  jury  to  decide  this  great  question.  I  shall 
not  be  partial,  but  bring  up  both  enemies  and  friends. 

We  will  first  call  the  Pharisees,  who  were  Christ's 
bitterest  enemies.  One  of  the  charges  they  preferred 
against  him  was,  "  This  man  recciveth  sinners  and  eat- 
the  with  them."  Thank  God  for  that!  The  very  thing 
they  bring  against  him  is  just  what  you  and  I  like. 


286      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Let  us  take  Pilate;  he  is  not  a  Jew,  and  is  unbiased 
and  unprejudiced.  His  testimony  is,  "  I  find  no  fault  in 
this  man."  Then  Pilate's  wife  sent  a  message  to  her  hus- 
band saying,  "  Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that  just 
man,  for  I  have  suffered  many  things  in  a  dream  because 
of  him." 

Well,  suppose  we  bring  in  Judas,  the  prince  of  traitors, 
and  ask  what  fault  he  found  in  him.  See  his  counte- 
nance fall/ as  remorse,  despair,  and  agony  come  upon 
him,  and  he  wrings  his  hands  and  throws  down  the  thir- 
ty pieces  of  silver,  saying,  "  I  have  betrayed  innocent 
blood."  A  great  many  persons  are  crying  out  against 
Judas,  but  I  tell  you  there  are  worse  men  than  he  in 
Chicago  to-day. 

It  seems  to  me  that  I  might  rest  the  case  here,  and 
that  you  could  render  a  verdict  that  Christ  is  the  true 
Messiah.  But  this  is  only  what  his  enemies  said  ;  I  have 
a  good  many  stronger  witnesses  among  his  friends.  The 
testimony  of  John  the  Baptist,  Peter,  doubting  Thomas, 
Paul,  and  the  angels  that  appeared  at  his  birth,  is  all  to 
the  same  effect ;  and  if  I  could  just  shout  up  to  the 
throne  and  ask  the  angels  there  what  they  think  of  him, 
just  imagine  what  would  be  the  reply.  It  would  be  the 
voice  that  John  heard — the  voice  of  many  angels — say- 
ing, "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  !  "  Would  it 
not  be  a  glorious  thing  for  Chicago  if  its  people  would 
help  swell  that  heavenly  cry?  Take  God's  own  testi- 
mony, "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased."  That  is  what  God  the  Father  thought.  Sin- 
ner, what  do  you  think  of  him?"  If  God  was  well 
pleased  with  him,  wont  you  be  pleased  with  him?     If 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      2S7 

God  thought  a  good  deal  of  him,  wont  you  think  a  little 
of  him  ?  O  that  God  may  now  tear  the  scales  from 
your  eyes,  that  you  may  behold  him  as  "  the  lily  of  the 
valley,"  as  the  "  rose  of  Sharon,"  as  the  "  root  and  off- 
spring of  Davrd,"  as  "  the  bright  and  morning  star,"  as 
God's  beloved  Son  sent  down  to  this  dark  world  to 
save  us. 

Now,  what  do  you  think  of  him?  Put  the  question  to 
yourself.  Do  you  think  a  good  deal  of  him  ?  What  do 
you  think  of  him,  young  man  ;  what  do  you,  you,  and 
you  [turning  in  different  directions]  think  of  him?  Do 
you  think  enough  of  him  to  trust  him  ?  Let  the  ques- 
tion go  up  into  the  galleries.  Dr.  Thompson,  what  do 
you  think  of  him — as  much  as  ever?  [Answer] — "  More. 
He  is  my  Lord  and  my  God."  Professor  Fisk,  what  do 
you  think  of  him  ?     [Answer] — "  Every  thing." 

Well,  how  many  are  going  to  think  enough  of  him 
to  trust  him  this  afternoon?  We  must  have  a  poor 
opinion  of  Christ  if  we  wont  trust  him.  Let  all  who  are 
willing  to  trust  him  as  their  Saviour  frorn  this  hour  rise 
and  sing,  "  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea,"  and  let  the 
rest  keep  their  scats. 

Almost  the  entire  audience  rose  and  joined  in  the  hymn. 


288       Moody:  his  Words —Work — Workers. 


JESUS  THE   MESSIAH. 

On  another  occasion  Mr.  Moody  read  the  lesson  for  the  day  from 
i  Cor.  i,  iS,  22-24:  "For  the  preaching  of  the  cross  is  to  them  that 
perish,  foolishness ;  but  unto  us  which  are  saved,  it  is  the  power  of 
God.  .  .  .  For  the  Jews  require  a  sign,  and  the  Greeks  seek  after 
wisdom  :  but  we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block,  and  unto  the  Greeks  foolishness ;  but  unto  them  which  are 
called,  both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  God." 

The  world  in  these  days  is  divided  into  the  same 
three  classes.  There  are  the  Jews  and  all  their  class, 
who  seek  after  something  else  than  the  Gospel  as  a 
sign  of  its  truth.  In  the  third  chapter  of  John  Christ 
takes  up  this  class  of  people,  and  mentions  four  signs  or 
proofs  of  his  Messiahship.  First,  John  the  Baptist  tes- 
tified of  it ;  second,  his  own  miracles  proved  it ;  third, 
God  the  Father  had  spoken  from  heaven  to  declare  it ; 
and,  fourth,  Moses  and  the  law  made  reference  to  him. 
From  his  birth  of  a  virgin  predicted  by  Isaiah,  until  his 
death  on  the  cross  of  Calvary,  signs  had  followed  him 
and  wonders  had  been  done  by  him  ;  but  the  greatest 
sign  of  all  was  his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Besides 
all  these,  look  at  the  sign  which  has  been  in  the  world  for 
nearly  nineteen  hundred  years.  Here  is  a  man  who  died 
as  a  malefactor  at  the  hands  of  Roman  soldiers,  whose 
doctrines  have  been  preached  for  a  religion,  and  whose 
name  has  been  believed  in  as  a  Saviour.  Now  how  can 
you  account  for  it  ?  Just  try  to  preach  some  other  name, 
as  Moses  or  Elijah,  and  see  how  long  you  can  make  it 
the  basis  of  a  new  religion !  What  power  would  there 
be  in  it?     How  many  could  you  get  to  hear  and  believe 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      289 

it?  But  look  at  the  results  of  preaching  and  believing 
the  name  of  Christ  !  Take  these  regenerated  drunkards, 
who  had  tried  every  thing  else  and  failed,  and  at  last 
came  to  Christ  and  were  saved.  Take  those  three  thou- 
sand who  were  converted  at  Pentecost  at  the  preaching 
of  the  life,  the  death,  and  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 

Now  do  you  suppose  it  would  have  been  possible  to 
deceive  that  number  of  shrewd,  wise-headed  Jews  and 
Greeks?  Right  there  in  Jerusalem,  in  the  midst  of 
those  who  wanted  to  believe  that  His  disciples  had 
stolen  his  body  away,  was  the  resurrection  preached  by 
those  who  had  seen  him  and  heard  him,  and  eaten  with 
him.  He  was  seen  by  about  five  hundred  brethen  at  one 
time,  and  if  there  had  been  a  fraud  wouldn't  somebody 
have  found  it  out  ?  This  blessed  truth  has  been  attacked 
again  and  again,  but  it  still  lives.  There  was  never  a 
time  when  Jesus  Christ  had  more  friends  than  now. 

We  find  in  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  that  His  name  was 
to  be  called  "  Wonderful,"  and  if  we  take  notice  we  will 
find  that  every  thing  about  Christ  was  wonderful — an- 
other proof  of  his  being  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 
There  is  nothing  to  be  compared  with  it. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  in  reply  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria  at  Jacob's  well,  Christ  declares  him- 
self to  be  the  Messiah  :  "  I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  he." 

The  second  class  mentioned  in  the  text  are  the  Greeks, 
who  wanted  to  find  out  Christ  by  wisdom.  We  have 
plenty  of  these  Greeks  among  us.  They  say  of  these 
meetings,  "  O  yes,  they  are  good,  very  good,  for  a  cer- 
tain class  of  poor  and   ignorant  people  ;    for  drunkards 

and   harlots,   and    such,    but    they  are   of  no    use   to    us 
13 


290      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

strong-minded  people.  These  simple  ones  are  deluded, 
of  course,  but  it  does  them  no  harm,  and  may  do  them 
some  little  good  ;  but  as  for  us  there  is  a  more  excellent 
way.     We  believe  in  education  and  culture." 

Well,  now,  let  me  ask  one  of  these  Greeks  what  he 
Avould  do  with  a  drunkard  who  has  fallen  into  the  gutter  ? 
Teach  him  astronomy  ?  That  would  save  him  from  get- 
ting drunk,  wouldn't  it  ? 

Paul  knew  those  old  Greeks.  When  he  was  in  Athens 
he  found  the  city  wholly  given  to  idolatry.  He  found 
plenty  of  philosophers  there,  but  of  these  the  one  class, 
the  Epicureans,  said  there  was  no  difference  between 
good  and  evil,  and  the  Stoics  thought  that  God  was  no 
better  than  themselves.  No  wonder  that  society  in 
Athens  was  as  corrupt  as  hell. 

Jews  and  Greeks  are  thick  enough  in  Chicago ;  but 
then  there  is  the  third  class  of  people,  namely,  those  who 
are  in  Christ.  They  learn  the  power  and  wisdom  of 
God  in  learning  Christ ;  but  how  much  do  they  find  out 
about  him  when,  in  the  pride  of  their  own  wisdom,  they 
refuse  to  receive  his  Gospel  ? 

Those  old  unbelievers  called  Paul  a  babbler  because 
he  preached  unto  them  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  ;  but 
there  was  more  power  and  wisdom  in  him  than  in  all 
those  nations  of  heathen  put  together.  The  power  and 
the  wisdom  of  God  was  in  him  because  he  was  one  with 
Christ  ? 

Now  to  which  of  these  three  classes  do  you  belong  ? 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      291 


THE  TEMPTATIONS  OF  CHRIST. 

Tins  afternoon  I  want  to  talk  to  you  a  little  about  the 
temptation  of  Christ.  It  is  shown  in  the  fourth  chapter 
of  Matthew  that  it  was  after  God  proclaimed  Christ  as 
his  Son  that  Satan  made  his  attack  on  him. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  find  this  same  enemy 
tempting  Adam  and  Eve  in  Eden  ;  and  if  you  compare 
Matthew  with  the  first  book  of  the  Bible  you  will  see 
that  Satan  made  the  same  attack  on  Christ  as  he  did  on 
Adam  and  Eve.  He  did  not  attack  him  as  the  Son  of 
God,  but  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

The  first  thing  that  Satan  told  him  was  to  turn  the 
stones  into  bread.  He  tempted  him  through  the  appe- 
tite, the  same  as  Adam  and  Eve  were  tempted. 

He  was  also  tempted  by  ambition.  You  will  remem- 
ber that  one  of  Satan's  assertions  when  tempting  Eve 
was,  "  Ye  shall  be  as  gods." 

The  difference  between  the  first  and  second  Adam  is, 
that  the  first  fell  when  he  was  tempted,  but  the  second 
withstood  temptation  by  the  word  of  God.  Even-  man 
that  stands  by  the  word  cannot  fall  ;  it  is  those  who 
begin  to  doubt  that  fall  a  prey  to  the  devil.  There  is 
not  a  young  convert  here  but  will  be  tempted,  and 
tempted,  probably,  as  were  the  first  and  second  Adam — 
through  the  appetite  and  ambition.  But  there  is  no 
need  of  his  falling  ;  it  is  the  privilege  of  every  child  of 
God  to  live  without  falling.  If  we  stand  by  our  Bible 
we  can  defy  the  devil.  But  the  trouble  is,  unbelief 
comes   in.      Men  begin    to   doubt   the   word.      The   first 


292      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

thing  Satan  did  was  to  plant  a  doubt  in  Adam's  heart, 
and  just  as  soon  as  we  get  that  far  our  fall  will  be  ac- 
complished. We  are  living  in  a  day  when  we  ought  to 
be  careful  what  we  believe,  and  when  we  ought  to  meas- 
ure every  sermon  by  the  word  of  God.  A  man  may  be 
as  eloquent  as  Gabriel,  but  unless  he  can  stand  the 
touchstone  of  the  word  he  will  be  of  no  use.  If  Jesus 
overcame  Satan  by  the  word,  how  much  greater  is  our 
need  for  that  powerful  safeguard  against  sin  and  temp- 
tation. There  are  a  good  many  unbelieving  Churches  at 
the  present  time ;  be  careful  you  don't  get  into  one.  I 
would  rather  some  one  should  poison  my  children  with 
drugs  from  the  drug  store  than  teach  them  false  doctrine 
which  would  lead  them  away  from  Christ. 


MIRACLES   OF   CHRIST. 

THE  miracles  of  Christ  have  been  often  attacked.  As 
soon  as  Christ  began  his  ministry  he  began  to  perform 
miracles. 

The  first  miracle  that  Moses  wrought  was  to  turn  the 
water  into  blood — that  is,  into  death.  Christ's  first  mir- 
acle was  to  turn  water  into  wine — whiqh  means  joy  and 
life. 

A  great  many  are  claiming  that  miracles  can  be  ac- 
counted for  by  natural  causes.  Let  me  give  you  a  little 
advice.  If  you  go  into  a  church  and  hear  a  minister 
make  such  a  remark,  take  your  hat  and  get  out  as  quick 
as  possible.  Go  as  Lot  went  out  of  Sodom,  and  do  not 
look  behind.     He  is  the  devil's  own  minister,  and  if  he 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      293 

had  been  sent  from  the  very  pit  of  hell  into  this  world 
to  preach  he  could  not  be  more  pernicious.  It  is  just 
bringing  the  Son  of  God  down  to  the  level  of  one  of  the 
mediums  of  the  pit-sent  day,  and  degrading  the  miracle 
to  a  sleight-of-hand  performance.  The  idea  that  any 
one  should  be  guilty  of  such  a  thing  in  regard  to  our 
Lord  and  Saviour!  A  miracle  is  a  supernatural  event, 
and  if  a  man  will  only  admit  one  miracle,  that  settles  the 
whole  question  ;  but  the  moment  we  doubt  one  we  are 
doing  just  what  the  devil  wants  us  to  do  —  doubting 
God's  word.  Is  there  a  man  or  woman  in  this  audience 
to-day  that  believes  that  Jesus  did  not  turn  that  water 
into  wine  ?  The  idea  that  God  had  not  the  power  to 
do  it  !  The  God  that  could  create  this  world  out  of 
nothing ! 

As  Milton  said  when  he  was  a  school-boy,  "  The  con- 
scious water  saw  its  God,  and  blushed." 

The  reclamation  of  drunkards  now  going  on  in  this 
city  is  as  wonderful  as  the  miracles  of  the  Bible;  and 
those  women  who  are  toiling  that  the  drunkards  may 
be  saved  will  have  a  great  many  bright  jewels  in  their 
crowns.  The\'  will  be  better  known  in  heaven  than  they 
are  here. 

I  would  like  t<>  have  men  explain  the  destruction  of 
drunkards'  appetites  for  liquor  by  natural  causes.  No. 
It  is  a  miracle  of  grace,  a  miracle  wrought  by  the  divine 
Spirit,  through  faith  in  a  divine  Saviour. 


294      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


CHRIST   THE   REFUGE. 

After  reading  the  Scripture  lesson  from  the  twentieth  chapter  of 
Joshua,  being  an  account  of  the  appointment  of  the  cities  of  refuge, 
to  which  he  who  slew  his  neighbor  unawares  might  flee,  to  be  safe 
from  the  avenger  of  blood,  Mr.  Moody  said  :— 

THESE  cities  of  refuge  were  typical  of  Christ. 

The  roads  which  led  to  them  were  always  to  be  open, 
and  the  bridges  in  good  repair.  At  the  forks  of  the 
roads  there  were  sfgn-boards  with  the  word  "  refuge " 
in  red  letters,  and  a  hand  pointing  the  way  to  the  city; 
and  when  once  a  fugitive  got  inside  he  found  shelter, 
defense,  and  society. 

Christ  is  the  refuge  for  these  poor  drunkards,  who  are 
hunted  down  by  the  power  of  strong  drink.  Flee  to  him 
and  you  will  find  safety,  pardon,  a  new  nature,  and  the 
fellowship  of  Christ  and  his  people. 

Now  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  names  of 
these  six  cities  of  refuge.  The  first  is  Kadesh  ;  that 
means  "  holiness."  "  O,"  says  one,  "  if  I  could  only  find 
holiness  I  should  be  safe!"  Well,  my  friend,  if  you 
want  to  find  holiness  come  to  Christ.  He  is  holy;  even 
the  devils  admit  that.  Don't  you  remember  how  the 
devil  answered  him  when  he  charged  him  to  come  out  of 
the  maniac  ?  "I  know  who  thou  art  :  the  holy  one  of 
God."  Christ  is  holiness  for  you  ;  you  will  never  have 
any  of  your  own.  Flee  unto  Kadesh,  and  Christ  shall 
be  made  unto  you  righteousness,  sanctification,  and  re- 
demption. 

The  name  of  the  next  is  Shechem ;  that  means  "shoul- 
der," something  to  carry  burdens   on.      "  O,"  says'the 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      295 

poor  sinner,  "  if  I  could  only  get  rid  of  this  awful  load 
of  sin  !  It  weighs  me  down  to  despair."  Well,  then, 
flee  to  Shechem.  You  haven't  far  to  go.  Christ  is  nigh 
thee.  It  isn't  as  if  the  city  of  refuge  were  ten  miles 
away,  and  you  must  run  to  it  with  this  terrible  burden 
on  your  shoulders.  Christ  is  right  here.  Just  lay  your 
burden  on  his  shoulder,  who  is  the  great  Burden-bearer, 
and  he  will  carry  it  for  you  ;  or,  still  better,  roll  it  into 
his  sepulcher,  and  you  shall  see  it  no  more. 

The  name  of  the  third  city  is  Hebron  ;  that  means 
"joined."  Some  of  these  drunkards  would  like  to  be- 
come Christians,  but  they  are  all  the  time  afraid  they 
can't  hold  out.  Well,  my  friend,  the  thing  for  you  to  do 
is  to  flee  to  Hebron,  and  when  once  you  are  joined  to 
Christ  you  are  safe.  Christ  will  carry  out  what  he  un- 
dertakes, and  if  you  join  yourself  to  him,  and  trust  your 
salvation  to  him,  you  will  be  able  to  stand  in  him  to  all 
eternity. 

I  heard  of  a  man  who  went  into  business  out  here  in 
some  of  these  western  towns,  where  people  said  he  was 
sure  to  fall  ;  but  he  didn't  ;  and  after  He  had  been  get- 
ting along  very  well  for  some  years,  and  showing  no 
signs  of  failing,  it  was  discovered  that  the  man  had  a 
brother  at  the  East  who  was  very  rich,  and  who  helped 
him  along  from  time  to  time.  Just  so  with  you,  sinner; 
you  have  a  Brother  who  is  very  rich,  and,  if  you  are 
joined  in  partnership  with  Him,  he  will  help  you  to  hold 
out.  It  is  those  who  are  not  joined  to  Christ  who  fail  ; 
but  they  who  are  joined  to  him  have  power  and  grace. 
"  They  that  trust  the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good 
thinsr." 


296      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

The  name  of  the  fourth  city  is  Bezer ;  that  means 
"fortified."  "The  Lord  is  a  strong  tower;  the  right- 
eous runneth  into  it  and  is  safe."  "  None  shall  be  able 
to  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand,"  says  Christ.  There  is  a 
fortress  which  all  the  powers  of  the  world  and  all  the 
devils  in  hell  can  never  batter  down.  Flee  to  Bezer, 
and  you  will  find  yourself  behind  the  fortifications  cast 
up  by  Christ  himself. 

The  fifth  city  is  Ramoth  ;  that  means  "  high."  Flee 
to  Ramoth,  up  out  of  the  low  lands  of  your  old  lusts, 
and  passions,  and  appetites,  up  to  the  high  places  of 
communion  with  Christ. 

"  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,"  says  Christ,  "  will  draw  all 
men  unto  me."  If  you  will  come  to  Christ  he  will  lift 
you  up  above  the  world,  above  your  old  evil  nature,  and 
by  and  by  he  will  raise  you  to  the  heights  of  his  eternal 
glory. 

The  last  city  is  Golan,  which  means  "  exile."  We  are 
strangers  and  pilgrims  in  this  world,  Like  Moses  in 
Egypt,  we  are  exiles  from  home,  and  we  seek  a  better 
country,  that  is,  a  heavenly  one.  What  we  want  is  to 
get  to  Golan,  get  where  we  feel  that  we  are  not  of  this 
world,  but  belong  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  "  Our  cit- 
izenship is  in  heaven."  But  after  all,  my  friends,  you 
haven't  to  flee  to  find  the  city  of  refuge.  Christ  is  right 
here;  right  at  the  door  of  your  hearts.  Give  yourself  to 
him  ;  make  Christ  your  refuge  to-day. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      297 


CHRIST  THE    REDEEMER. 

The  Blood  Atonement  in  the  Old  Testament. 

I  want  to  begin  to-night  with  the  second  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  Genesis,  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  verses: 
"  And  the  Lord  God  commanded  the  man,  saying,  Of  ev- 
ery tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat  :  hut  of  the 
tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  not 
eat  of  it :  for  in  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt 
surely  die." 

This  is  a  law,  and  if  it  is  going  to  be  of  any  force  it 
must  have  a  penalty.  A  law  without  a  penalty  isn't  of  any 
use.  You  might  make  a  law  that  people  shall  not  steal, 
but  if  there  wasn't  any  penalty  we  should  lose  our  watches 
before  we  could  get  home.  There  must  be  a  penalty  to  all 
laws,  and  the  penalty  to  this  one  is  death. 

I  used  to  stumble  over  that  text.  God  tells  Adam  that 
in  the  day  he  transgresses  he  shall  die,  and  yet  he  lives 
more  than  six  hundred  years  afterward.  But  after  study- 
ing my  Bible  awhile  it  began  to  get  clearer  to  me.  How 
did  Adam  die  in  the  day  he  disobeyed  God  ?  He  lost  the 
life  of  his  soul ;  he  became  dead  to  God  ;  got  out  of  com- 
munion with  him  ;  so  that  when  God  came  down  to  see 
him  he  hid  himself  among  the  trees  of  the  garden. 

God's  chariot  has  two  wheels,  Grace  and  Government. 
I  always  feel  glad  to  think  that  sin  was 'covered  before 
Eden  was  lost. 

God  deals  with  Adam   in  grace  before  he  deals  with 

him  under  the  law.      Here  in  the  twenty-first  verse  oi  the 

third  chapter  of  Genesis  we  read   that  God  made  Adam 
1:; 


298       Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

and  his  wife  coats  of  skins  before  he  drove  them  out 
of  Eden. 

And  now  right  here  we  find  the  Gospel  doctrine  of  sub- 
stitution. The  animals  were  slain — of  course  they  must 
be  killed  before  God  could  get  their  skins — and  so  death, 
the  first  death  we  find  in  the  world,  was  a  type  of  the 
death  of  the  Lamb  of  God  on  Calvary. 

That  is  what  the  apostle  preached  ;  Christ  "  was  de- 
livered for  our  offenses,  and  was  raised  again  for  our 
justification." 

Now  how  can  God  be  just  and  justify  the  sinner?  I 
will  tell  you  :  Because  God  himself  came  down  in  the  form 
of  sinful  flesh  and  took  upon  him  our  nature,  and  died  that 
we  might  live.     There  is  the  doctrine  of  substitution. 

You  don't  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  substitution  ?  Well, 
then,  if  you  don't  believe  that  you  don't  believe  the  Bible. 
I  tell  you,  take  the  doctrine  of  substitution  out  of  that 
Bible  and  I  wouldn't  carry  it  home  with  me. 

"  The  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's 
head  "  has  run  along  down  through  the  ages  ever  since 
Adam  fell. 

Take  the  history  of  those  first  two  worshipers,  Cain  and 
Abel.  Abel  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  substitution,  but 
Cain  did  not. 

I  seem  to  hear  Cain  saying  to  himself:  "  I  am  not  fond 
of  shedding  blood.  I  don't  see  why  Abel  must  be  always 
killing  something  for  an  offering  to  God.  It  seems  to  me 
much  better  to  bring  some  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth." 

But  the  Bible  says  that  "  the  Lord  had  respect  unto 
Abel  and  to  his  offering  :  but  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering 
he  had  not  respect."     There  are  a  great  many  Cainites  in 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      299 

the  world  in  these  days.  Take  care,  my  friends,  not  to  dis- 
obey God,  and  neglect  the  blood  of  his  Son,  lest  he,  as  in 
the  case  of  Cain,  reject  both  your  offering  and  yourselves. 
You  insult  the  Almighty  by  offering  the  work  of  your  own 
hands  to  atone  for  you. 

Abel  went  to  heaven  by  the  way  of  the  blood,  and  that 
is  the  way  every  other  soul  has  gone  to  glory.  We  have 
a  solo  here  from  Mr.  Sankey  once  in  awhile.  So  I  can 
imagine  that  when  Abel  went  to  heaven  they  had  a  solo 
there,  for  Abel  could  sing  a  song  that  none  of  them  in 
heaven  knew — the  song  of  redemption  by  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb.  Now  they  sing  it  in  grand  chorus,  for  a  great  mul- 
titude have  gone  up  on  high,  and  they  all  sing  the  same 
words,  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain." 

In  the  eighth  chapter  of  Exodus  and  at  the  twentieth 
verse,  we  find  Noah  opening  the  second  era  of  the  world 
by  building  an  altar,  and  offering  on  it  those  clean  beasts 
which  God  had  taken  care  to  have  brought  over  the  flood 
for  that  very  purpose. 

The  Scripture  says  that  Abraham  saw  Christ's  day,  and 
was  glad.  Perhaps  it  was  right  there  on  the  mountain 
when  he  was  about  to  offer  up  his  son.  Perhaps  God 
gave  him  a  glimpse  down  the  ages,  and  showed  him  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  climbing  up  the  Mount  of  Calvary 
with  the  weight  of  all  the  sin  of  the  world  bearing  him 
down. 

In  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Exodus,  and  at  the  second 
verse,  we  read:  "This  month  shall  be  unto  you  the  begin- 
ning of  months :  it  shall  be  the  first  month  of  the  year  to 
you,"  etc.  What  month  was  that  ?  The  month  which  be- 
gan with  the  passover.     All  the  time  that  Israel  had  been 


3oo      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

in  Egypt  was  to  go  for  nothing,  and  they  were  to  begin  to 
reckon  from  the  blood  ;  that  is,  the  blood  of  the  paschal 
lamb.  My  friends,  our  life  don't  start  from  the  cradle, 
but  from  the  cross  of  Christ.  Noah  began  his  reckoning 
from  the  altar  set  up  after  the  flood,  and  when  we  reckon 
our  years  it  is  from  the  coming  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  who 
died  to  take  away  our  sins. 

The  death  of  Christ  is  our  life.  People  say  we  ought 
to  preach  up  Christ's  life  and  character.  But  Christ  didn't 
say  we  were  to  preach  his  life  as  the  salvation  of  sinners. 
God  didn't  say,  "  Tie  a  living  lamb  to  the  doorpost,  and 
when  I  see  it  I  will  pass  over  you."  If  that  had  been 
done,  death  would  have  passed  over  the  living  lamb  and 
taken  the  first-born.  It  was  death  that  kept  death  off; 
the  only  way  to  meet  death  is  by  death.  The  sentence 
has  come,  and  I  must  either  have  some  one  to  die  for  me 
or  die  myself.  That  is  the  lesson  that  God  is  trying  to 
bring  out — the  great  doctrine  of  substitution.  The  lambs 
were  typical  of  the  coming  of  the  Lamb"  of  God.  They 
foreshadowed  the  scene  at  Calvary  ;  and  they  continued  to 
be  offered  until  Jesus  Christ  himself  died  for  us. 

I  can  imagine  some  of  the  lords  and  dignitaries  of 
Egypt  riding  through  Goshen  the  day  before  the  passover. 
They  could  hear  the  bleating  of  the  lambs  all  through  the 
province,  for  every  man  had  either  his  lamb  ready  to  kill 
or  was  killing  it ;  and  they  were  sprinkling  the  blood  upon 
the  door-posts. 

I  imagine  I  can  hear  those  Egyptians  saying,  "  Men ! 
what  are  you  doing  ?  Why  are  you  putting  blood  upon 
your  houses  ?     Why  are  you  disfiguring  your  door-posts  ?" 

"  Ah  ! "  say  the  Hebrews,  "  it  is  going  to  shelter  us  to- 


Outlines  of  Doctrine  -Jesus  Christ.      301 

night.      It   will   be  worth  to  us,  at   midnight,  more   than 
all  Egypt." 

The  men  go  away  laughing  together,  and  thinking 
that  these  Hebrews  had  gone  clean  mad.  But  ah!  at 
midnight  they  changed  their  minds.  There  was  a  wail 
that  went  up  from  every  house.  From  the  palace  of  the 
king  down  to  the  lowest  hut  death  had  come  and  taken  his 
victim.  He  entered  the  palace  of  the  rich  and  the  hovel 
of  the  poor,  and  laid  his  icy  hand  upon  the  firstborn  of  all 
Egypt,    But  Israel  was  safe,  sheltered  behind  the  blood. 

The  lamb  must  be  pure  and  spotless,  for  the  Lamb  of 
God  was  spotless.  The  blood  must  be  put  on  the  door- 
post, not  on  the  threshold  ;  God  will  not  suffer  the  blood 
to  be  trampled  on.  And  when  all  this  was  done,  and 
death  came  round  to  slay  the  first-born,  wherever  he  saw 
the  blood,  he  said  Death  has  been  here  already ;  and  so  he 
left  it  and  went  on  to  the  next  house.  Thus  death  kept 
death  out. 

I  have  heard  people  wishing  they  were  as  good  as  this 
minister  or  that  mother  in  Israel  ;  but  I  tell  you,  my 
friends,  you  are  just  as  safe  as  any  of  them  if  you  are  only 
sheltered  behind  the  blood.  The  smallest  child  in  Goshen 
that  night  of  the  passover  was  just  as  safe  behind  the 
blood  as  Moses  and  Aaron  themselves.  The  blood  was 
the  token  which  God  had  appointed  ;  nothing  else  was 
needed,  nothing  else  was  of  any  use. 

When  I  started  for  the  east  the  other  night  the  con- 
ductor came  along  and  called  out  "  Tickets  !  "  I  le  didn't 
look  at  me  at  all,  but  he  looked  at  the  ticket.  That  was 
all  right,  and  it  made  no  difference  to  him  who  the  pas- 
senger was.     So  with  the  blood.     If  we  have  the  token  - 


302      Moody  :  ins  Words — Work — Workers. 

the  blood  of  Christ  applied  to  our  souls — we  are  safe  ;  for 
that  is  all  the  law  of  God  requires.  Some  one  has  said 
that  a  little  fly  in  the  ark  was  just  as  safe  as  the  elephant : 
it  wasn't  the  strength  of  the  great  beast  that  saved  him  ; 
it  was  the  ark. 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  take  you  through  the  book  of  Le- 
viticus ;  it  is  all  about  worship,  all  full  of  types  which  have 
been  fulfilled  in  Christ. 

There  are  one  or  two  other  verses  we  ought  to  no- 
tice :  "  Thus  shall  ye  eat  it ;  with  your  loins  girded,  your 
shoes  on  your  feet,  and  your  staff  in  your  hand ;  and  ye 
shall  eat  it  in  haste  :  it  is  the  Lord's  passover."  Now, 
there  are  many  people  who  are  satisfied  With  getting  to 
Calvary ;  they  forget  to  feed  upon  the  Lamb,  and  so  they 
get  thin,  and  poor,  and  sickly. 

Here  is  a  curious  text  that  used  to  trouble  me.  I 
couldn't  see  what  it  meant.  It  is  Leviticus  viii,  23  :  "And 
Moses  took  of  the  blood  of  the  ram  of  consecration,  and 
put  it  upon  the  tip  of  Aaron's  right  ear,  and  upon  the 
thumb  of  his  right  hand,  and  upon  the  great  toe  of  his 
right  foot."     What  is  all  that  for  ? 

Well,  my  friends,  I'll  tell  you.  The  blood  on  the  ear  was 
to  help  him  to  hear  the  voice  of  God.  If  he  didn't  hear  well 
he  wouldn't  teach  well.  Nobody  can  hear  the  voice  of 
God  till  his  ears  have  been  sanctified.  There  was  a  time 
when  God  the  Father  spoke  to  his  Son  out  of  heaven,  but 
the  people  that  stood  by  said  that  it  thundered  ;  they 
didn't  know  the  difference  between  God's  voice  and  thun- 
der. Then  the  blood  on  the  right  hand  was  to  show  that 
his  work  was  consecrated  to  God.  No  man  can  do  any 
good  at  working  for  God  till  he  is  washed  in  the  blood,  of 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      303 

Christ.  I  never  knew  any  one  who  didn't  believe  in  the 
blood  to  have  any  power  in  prayer,  or  to  be  able  to  lead 
any  souls  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  blood  on  the 
foot  was  to  show  that  Aaron  was  to  walk  in  the  way  of 
God's  commandments. 

In  Leviticus  xvii,  1 1,  we  read  the  meaning  of  the  blood  : 
"  For  the  life  of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood ;  and  I  have  given 
it  to  you  upon  the  altar  to  make  an  atonement  for  your 
souls :  for  it  is  the  blood  that  maketh  an  atonement  for  the 
soul." 

Here,  then,  is  the  doctrine  of  substitution  :  Christ — 
died — for — us.  Moses  taught  it ;  Isaiah  taught  it ;  the 
Gospels  teach  it  ;  it  is  the  scarlet  thread  that  binds  the 
whole  Bible  together  ;  it  is  the  one  lesson  which  God  has 
to  teach  us.  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin. 

My  friends,  what  will  you  do  with  the  precious  blood 
to-night  ? 

A  good  many  years  ago,  when  the  California  gold-fever 
broke  out,  there  was  a  young  man  who  left  a  wife  and  little 
boy  and  went  to  California.  He  told  his  wife  that  as  soon 
as  he  could  he  would  send  for  her  and  his  child.  They 
watched  and  watched  for  the  letter  to  come,  bringing  the 
money  ;  but  he  was  not  very  successful,  and  it  was  a  long 
time  before  the  money  came  to  take  them  to  the  Pacific 
coast.  But  at  last  the  letter  did  come,  and  that  wife  and 
little  boy  were  full  of  delight.  They  went  to  New  York 
and  took  their  passage  in  one  of  those  beautiful  Pacific 
steamers,  but  they  had  not  been  at  sea  very  long  when, 
one  beautiful  day,  all  at  once  there  was  a  cry  of  "Fire!" 
"  fire ! " 


304      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

The  pumps  were  set  to  work,  but,  in  spite  of  every- 
thing, the  flames  increased.  There  was  a  magazine  of 
powder  on  board,  and  the  captain  knew  the  moment  the 
fire  touched  it  all  would  perish.  The  life-boats  were  low- 
ered, and  the  strongest  of  the  passengers  and  crew  sprang 
into  them,  and  left  the  rest  to  die.  Among  the  number 
left  were  that  poor  mother  and  her  boy.  The  last  life- 
boat was  pushing  away  ;  it  was  her  last  hope.  She  bent 
over  that  ship  and  begged  them  to  take  her  boy  and  her- 
self; but  no — the  crew  said  they  didn't  dare  to  take  any 
more.  She  pleaded  with  them  until  at  last  one  of  the 
men  said,  "Let  us  take  them  ;"  but  the  others  cried  out 
against  it.     At  last  they  agreed  to  take  one  of  them. 

What  do  you  think  she  did  ?  Did  the  mother  leap  into 
the  boat  and  leave  the  boy  to  perish  ?  But  you,  mothers, 
know  that  she  wouldn't  do  that.  She  seized  her  darling 
boy  ;  pressed  him  to  her  heart  ;  handed  him  over  the  side  ; 
and  as  she  dropped  him  into  the  boat  she  said, 

"  My  son,  if  you  live  to  see  your  father  tell  him  that  I 
died  in  your  place." 

The  boat  pushed  off,  and  in  a  little  while  that  vessel 
was  blown  up,  and  that  mother  perished. 

Young  men,  what  would  you  say  of  that  son  if  he  should 
speak  disrespectfully  of  his  mother  ?  You  would  say  he 
wasn't  fit  to  live. 

And  what  shall  be  said  of  you  if  you  refuse  to  give 
your  heart  to  Him  who  has  purchased  you  with  his  own 
blood  ? 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      305 

The  Blood  Atonement  in  the  New  Testament. 

Last  night  I  was  talking  about  "  The  Blood  "  as  it  is  set 
forth  in  the  Old  Testament.  To-night  I  wish  to  call 
your  attention  to  some  things  said  about  it  in  the  New 
Testament.  A  lady  once  wrote  me  a  letter  saying  she- 
had  followed  our  work  with  great  interest  both  in  England 
and  in  this  country,  but  when  she  heard  of  my  preaching 
about  the  blood  she  was  thoroughly  displeased  with  me. 
"Where,"  she  asked,  "did  Jesus  ever  teach  the  barbarous, 
monstrous  doctrine,  that  men  are  to  be  saved  by  means  of 
his  blood  ?  " 

Well,  my  friends,  I'll  tell  you.  In  the  fourteenth  chap- 
ter of  Mark,  twenty-fourth  verse,  Christ  says  to  his  disci- 
ples, "This  is  my  blood  of  the  new  testament,  which  is 
shed  for  many."  Also  in  Luke  xxii,  20,  he  says,  "  This 
cup  is  the  new  testament  in  my  blood,  wdiich  is  shed  for 
you."  There  are  plenty  more  texts  to  the  same  purpose, 
but  these  are  enough  to  answer  the  question.  If  Christ 
did  not  teach,  and  if  the  apostles  and  the  early  Church 
did  not  believe,  the  doctrine  of  the  vicarious  atonement 
of  Jesus  Christ,  then  I  haven't  got  the  key  to  this  book 
at  all. 

A  young  minister  once  came  to  me  in  England  and 
said,  "  Either  you  are  wrong  or  I  am." 

"  What  about  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Why,  about  this  being  saved  by  the  blood  of  Christ." 
And  then  he  went  on  to  say  that  he  did  not  believe  one 
word  of  my  sermon  on  "The  Blood;"  he  thought  and 
preached  that  it  was  the  life,  and  not  the  death,  of  Christ 
that  was  the  means  of  saving  men's  souls. 


306      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

"  Do  you  have  any  body  converted  under  that  doctrine  ? " 
said  I. 

"  O,  no  ;  I  don't  work  for  that ;  I  preach  morality  to  my 
people,  and  expect  them  to  be  saved  gradually  by  culture, 
and  education  in  the  truth." 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  I  should  feel  as  if  religion  was  all  a 
sham  if,  with  these  texts  in  the  word  of  God,  your  notions 
of  it  were  true." 

"And  I  myself  sometimes  think  it  a  sham,"  he  re- 
plied. 

So  I  read  him  some  texts :  "  Who  his  own  self  bare 
our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree  ; "  "  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  his  son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin  ;  "  and  a  good 
many  more  of  the  same  sort,  and  he  didn't  know  what 
to  do  with  them. 

Let  us  take  John  xix,  34  :  "  But  one  of  the  soldiers  with 
a  spear  pierced  his  side,  and  forthwith  came  thereout 
blood  and  water."  That  was  the  crowning  act  of  hell  ;  but 
when  that  spear  pierced  his  side,  his  heart's  blood  covered 
and  glorified  the  spear  ;  so  every  thing  that  is  touched 
by  the  blood  of  Christ  is  sanctified.  Even  this  earth  is 
redeemed  by  it,  and  some  day  will  exchange  its  thorns  and 
briars  for  roses  and  myrtles. 

In  1  Peter  i,  18,  19,  we  read:  "Ye  were  not  redeemed 
with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold, .  .  .  but  with  the 
precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish 
and  without  spot."  "  Redeem  "  means,  to  bring  back.  A 
friend  of  mine  near  Dublin  was  illustrating  it  to  me  in 
this  way  :  he  said  he  was  walking  out  in  the  fields  one 
day,  and  came  across  a  boy  with  a  sparrow  in  his  hand 
which  he  had  caught.     The  gentleman  tried  to  persuade 


Outlines  oi   Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      307 

the  boy  to  let  it  go ;  but  he  answered,  "  Indade,  sur,  an' 
haven't  I  been  chasin'  him  for  half  an  hour,  and  d'ye  'spose 
I'd  be  afther  lettin'  him  go  ? "  So  the  man  offered  to  buy 
him,  and  when  he  had  paid  the  price  that  the  little  fel- 
low asked  for  the  bird,  he  took  it  up  and  laid  it  in  the 
open  palm  of  his  hand.  The  little  thing  had  been  over- 
powered with  fear,  but  presently  fluttered  its  wings  a  lit- 
tle, and  then  soared  away  into  the  air  singing  as  plain  as 
it  could  speak,  "  Thank  you  !  thank  you  ! "  So,  my  friends, 
we  have  been  in  the  hands  of  the  devil  these  six  thou- 
sand years  ;  he  is  too  strong  for  us  ;  he  is  older  and 
wiser  than  we  ;  but  Christ  has  bought  us,  not  of  the 
devil,  but  of  the  law  of  God,  which  had  sentenced  us  to 
die,  and  we  ought  to  fill  all  the  air  with  songs  of  thanks- 
giving. 

Now  the  blood  has  two  cries,  salvation  and  damnation. 
God  said  to  Cain,  "  Thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto  me 
from  the  ground.  And  now  art  thou  cursed  from  the 
earth;"  but  in  Colossians  i,  20,  we  find  the  blood  of 
Christ  making  peace  for  us,  and  reconciling  us  to  God. 
Some  of  you  don't  believe  in  being  saved  by  the  blood  : 
tell  me  how  you  arc  going  to  get  rid  of  this  passage  in 
Hebrews  ix,  22  :  "  Without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  re- 
mission." What  hope  have  you  if  you  reject  this  only 
means  by  which  your  sins  may  be  remitted  ?  In  Hebrews 
x,  20,  we  are  told  that  the  new  and  living  way  by  which  we 
may  enter  into  the  holy  place  is  through  the  vail  of  Christ's 
flesh.  You  know  that  when  Christ  died  God  rent  the 
vail  of  the  temple  from  top  to  bottom  ;  not  from  bottom  to 
top  ;  the  work  was  done  from  above;  and  that  is  to  signify 
that  the  way  into  God's  kingdom  is  opened  by  the  offering 


308      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world.  You  don't  need  a  priest,  or  bishop,  or  pope  to 
help  you  ;  come  yourself,  come  boldly,  come  all  alone  ;  the 
way  is  open,  even  into  the  holy  of  holies. 

There  are  a  good  many  other  passages  I  would  like  to 
notice,  but  I  must  hasten  on.  Take  this  one,  Rev.  xii,  1 1  : 
"  And  they  overcame  him  [that  is,  the  devil]  by  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testimony."  There 
is  nothing  that  the  devil  hates  and  fears  so  much  as  the 
blood  of  the  Son  of  God.  He  likes  to  get  ministers  to 
touch  lightly  on  it ;  and  if  he  could  keep  them  from  preach- 
ing it  at  all  he  wouldn't  care  how  much  they  preached 
other  things  :  but  I  tell  you  a  minister  may  just  as  well 
sit  down  on  a  curbstone  and  whittle  shavings  as  to  go  in- 
to the  pulpit  and  preach  if  he  does  not  preach  redemption, 
substitution,  and  salvation,  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
There  may  be  great  crowds  attending  his  ministry,  but 
his  work  will  all  go  to  nothing  unless  he  is  faithful  to  this 
central  doctrine  of  Christian  faith. 

An  old  minister  who  had  preached  the  Gospel  for  fifty 
years  was  dying.  He  called  for  the  Bible,  and  said, 
"  Find  me  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  the  first  chapter  and 
the  seventh  verse;"  and  when  they  found  it  for  him  he 
put  his  trembling  finger  on  it  and  said,"  I  die  in  the  faith 
of  that  verse."  What  is  it  ?  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 

"  I  am  on  the  down  grade  and  can't  find  the  brake," 
said  a  dying  man  who  used  to  be  a  driver  on  the  overland 
stage  line.  "  I  am  sweeping  through  the  gates,  washed 
in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,"  said  Alfred  Cookman.  My 
friends,  when  Christ  ascended  to  heaven  he  left  his  blood 


Outlines  of  Doctrine  -Jesus  Christ.      309 

behind  ;  it  was  shed  on  Calvary,  and  there  it  has  remained 
for  us.  What  will  you  do  with  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  ? 
Will  you  accept  it  ?     Will  you  let  it  wash  away  your  sins  ? 

Now  the  blood  is  on  the  mercy-seat :  while  it  is  there 
God  says,  "  I  cannot  see  your  sins,  I  am  looking  at 
the  blood."  O  press  toward  the  mercy-seat  while  the 
blood  is  on  it,  and  God  will  accept  your  poor  sinful  souls 
for  the  sake  of  the  blood  of  his  Son. 

In  1  Corinthians  xv,  3,  we  are  told  that  "  Christ  died 
for  our  sins."  I  wish  I  could  get  every  one  here  to  believe 
that:  to  say,  not,  he  died  for  all  mankind,  but,  Jic  died  for 
vie.  I  have  often  thought  that  if  I  could  make  this  doc- 
trine real — if  I  could  tell  the  story  of  the  cross  so  that 
people  would  see  it  and  feel  it — I  would  go  around  and 
tell  it,  and  preach  nothing  else. 

We  take  up  the  Bible,  and  read  the  account  of  his  cruci- 
fixion and  death — how  he  suffered  in  agony — and  we  go 
away,  lay  the  Bible  down,  and  think  nothing  more  about 
it.  I  remember  when  the  war  was  going  on  I  would  read 
about  a  great  battle  having  been  fought,  where  probably 
ten  thousand  men  had  been  killed  and  wounded,  and  after 
reading  the  article  I  would  lay  the  paper  aside  and  forget 
all  about  it.  At  last  I  went  into  the  army  myself.  I  was 
at  Fort  Donelson  and  Pittsburgh  Landing.  I  saw  the  dy- 
ing men — I  heard  the  groans  of  the  wounded — I  helped 
to  comfort  the  dying  and  to  bury  the  dead  ;  I  saw  the 
scene  in  all  its  terrible  realities  ;  and  after  I  had  been  on 
the  battle  field  I  could  not  read  an  account  of  a  battle 
without  it  making  a  profound  impression  upon  me.  I 
wish  I  could  bring  before  you  in  living  colors  the  suffer- 
ings and  death  of  Christ. 


310      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

When  a  great  man  dies  we  are  all  anxious  to  get  his 
last  words  ;  and  if  it  is  a  friend,  how  we  treasure  up  that 
last  word — how  we  tell  it  to  his  friends  !  And  we  never 
tire  talking  about  our  loved  ones,  and  how  they  made 
their  departure  from  the  world. 

Now,  let  us  visit  Calvary  ;  let  us  go  back  in  our  imag- 
ination to  the  time  of  Christ's  crucifixion  ;  let  us  imagine 
we  are  living  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  it  is  the 
last  Thursday  before  he  was 'crucified.  Let  us  just  im- 
agine we  are  on  one  of  the  streets  of  Jerusalem.  You 
see  a  small  body  of  men  walking  down  the  street.  As  we 
get  nearer  we  find  that  it  is  Jesus  and  his  apostles.  We 
just  walk  down  the  street  with  them  and  we  see  them 
stop  before  a  very  common  looking  house.  They  go  in, 
and  we  enter  also,  and  there  we  find  Jesus  sitting  with  the 
apostles.  You  can  see  sorrow  depicted  upon  his  brow. 
We  are  told  that  "  he  was  sorrowful  unto  death." 

While  he  was  sitting  there  he  said  to  the  twelve,  "  One 
of  you  shall  betray  me."  Then  each  of  them  wondered  if 
he  were  the  one  of  whom  the  Master  spoke,  and  they  said, 
"Is  it  I?"  Then  Judas,  the  traitor,  asked,  "  Is  it  I?" 
"Judas,  what  thou  doest  do  quickly,"  said  the  Saviour, 
and  Judas  got  up  and  left  the  room.  For  three  years  he 
had  been  associated  with  the  Son  of  God.  For  three 
years  he  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  For  three  years  he 
had  heard  those  words  of  sympathy  and  love  fall  from  his 
lips.  He  had  seen  him  perform  his  wonderful  miractes. 
He  had  heard  the  parables  as  they  fell  from  his  lips.  For 
three  years  he  had  been  a  member  of  that  little  band, 
but  now  he  gets  up  and  goes  out  into  the  night,  the  dark- 
est night  this  world  ever  saw.     You  can  hear  him  as  he 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      311 

goes  down  those  steps  off  into  the  darkness  and  black- 
ness of  the  night.  He  goes  to  the  Sanhedrin  and  says, 
"  What  will  you  give  me  ? " 

"Thirty  pieces  of  silver." 

That  was  a  small  amount.  Men  condemn  Judas ;  but 
how  many  are  selling  him  for  less  than  that  ?  How  many 
will  give  him  up  for  less  than  that  ? 

It  was  on  that  night  that  Jesus  said,  "Let  not  your 
hearts  be  troubled.  ...  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for.  you. 
And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come  again, 
.  .  .  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also."  Instead  of  the 
disciples  trying  to  cheer  him,  he  is  trying  to  cheer  them. 
He  takes  Peter,  James,  and  John  off  from  the  rest,  and 
then  he  withdraws  from  them  about  a  stone's  throw,  and 
there  he  prayed  to  the  Father.  He  that  knew  no  sin  was  to 
bear  all  our  sins.  He  who  was  as  spotless  as  the  angels 
of  heaven  was  to  suffer  for  us.  When  he  gets  up  from 
prayer  he  sees  in  the  distance  a  band  of  men  with  lanterns 
and  torches,  and  he  knows  they  are  looking  for  him.  He 
went  up  to  this  band  of  men  and  said,  "  WThom  seek  ye  ? " 
And  they  said,  "  We  seek  Jesus  of  Nazareth." 

"  I  am  he." 

Mr.  Moody  concluded  the  discourse  with  a  vivid  description  of  the 
scenes  and  events  of  the  last  hours  of  Christ,  so  life-like  as  to  be 
absolutely  painful,  and  in  a  style  which  it  is  impossible  to  reproduce 
to  the  mind  of  one  who  only  hears  it  through  his  eyes.  The  trial  be- 
fore Pilate,  the  condemnation,  the  scourging,  the  crown  of  thorns, 
the  mockery  at  the  house  of  Herod,  the  cry  of  "  Crucify  him !  crucify 
him  !  "  the  journey  to  Calvary,  the  nailing  of  his  blessed  body  to  the 
cross,  his  death-cry,  the  darkness,  the  earthquake,  the  spear-thrust, 
and  at  last,  the  descent  from  the  cross,  were  all  pictured  so  as  to  bring 
home  to  the  vast  congregation  the  sacred  and  awful  truth  of  the 
vicarious  death  of  the  Son  of  God. 


312      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   CHRIST. 

After  reading'  the  account  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  found  in 
the  sixteenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  St.  Mark,  Mr.  Moody  said  : — 

A  good  many  people  seem  to  think  that  Christ's  res- 
urrection was  only  a  spiritual  matter,  and  that  his  body 
laid  in  the  grave  and  became  food  for  worms,  just  like 
any  other  dead  body.  But  the  Gospels  are  very  full 
and  plain  on  this  point.  Not  less  than  forty-two  times  is 
this  blessed  doctrine  spoken  of  by  Christ  himself  before 
his  death,  as  well  as  by  his  disciples  afterward.  In  Mat- 
thew xvi,  21,  we  find,  "From  that  time  forth  began  Jesus 
to  show  unto  his  disciples,  how  that  he  must  go  unto  Je- 
rusalem, and  suffer  many  things  of  the  elders  and  chief 
priests  and  scribes,  and  be  killed,  and  be  raised  again  the 
third  day."  In  Matthew  xvii,  9,  Jesus  charged  his  disci- 
ples saying,  "  Tell  the  vision  [that  is,  the  vision  of  the 
transfiguration]  to  no  man,  until  the  Son  of  man  be  risen 
again  from  the  dead."  In  Mark  ix,  9,  10,  the  same  thing 
is  repeated.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  places 
where  Christ  and  his  disciples  declare  the  fact  of  his  res- 
urrection from  the  dead.  The  disciples  seemed  to  have 
two  chief  texts  to  preach  from :  the  death  of  Christ  and 
the  resurrection  of  Christ.  These  were  the  two  hinges  of 
the  door  leading  into  God's  kingdom.  These  were  the 
two  foundation-stones  on  which  that  kingdom  was  built. 

In  Matthew  xii,  39,  the  Jews  come  to  Christ  and  ask 
him  to  give  them  a  sign,  and  he  tells  them  that  no  sign 
shall  be  given  them  but  the  sign  of  Jonah  the  prophet. 
What  was  that  sign  ?     The  sign  of  the  resurrection. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      313 

No  doubt  the  captain  of  that  ship  on  which  Jonah  took 
passage  came  to  Nineveh,  and  told  the  story  of  the  man 
whom  they  had  been  obliged  to  cast  overboard,  and  that 
the  last  they  saw  of  him  was  his  heels  as  he  went  into 
the  belly  of  that  whale.  Some  people  say  that  a  whale's 
throat  isn't  big  enough  to  swallow  a  man,  but  the  Script- 
ure puts  that  all  right.  It  says,  "The  Lord  prepared  a 
great  fish,"  and  he  could  do  that  as  well  as  any  thing  else. 

A  few  days  after  whom  should  those  Ninevite  sailors 
see  but  Jonah,  whom  they  knew  had  been  swallowed. 
What  could  it  mean  ?  Here  is  a  man  come  back  from 
death  !     Surely,  his  message  must  be  important. 

"  You  want  a  sign,  do  you  ?  "  says  Christ.  "  Well,  you 
shall  have  one  :  as  Jonah  was  three  days  and  three  nights 
in  the  whale's  belly  :  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth."  There  was 
death  and  there  was  resurrection. 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  think  what  darkness  would  settle 
down  upon  the  world  if  it  were  not  for  this  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  ?  How  I  pity  those  men  who  try  to  deny  it. 
They  are  like  Samson,  pulling  the  house  down  upon  their 
own  heads. 

In  the  sixth  chapter  of  John's  Gospel  Christ  tells  his 
disciples  three  or  four  times,  "  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the 
last  clay." 

There  is,  then,  a  resurrection  for  us  also. 

But  let  us  keep  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  You  re- 
member that  in  a  previous  sermon  we  left  him  lying  in  the 
sepulcher  in  the  garden  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  where  he 
had  received  a  kingly  burial,  being  embalmed  with  a  hun- 
dred pounds  of  sweet  spices,  as  the  manner  of  the  Jews  is 
14 


314      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

to  bury.  If  you  could  have  seen  Death  on  his  throne  just 
then  you  would  have  seen  him  exulting  over  the  Son  of 
God,  and  you  might  have  heard  him  say,  ■'  Ah,  yes,  Jesus 
pays  his  tribute  to  me.  Only  two,  Enoch  and  Elijah,  ever 
escaped  me."  But  even  then  his  hands  begin  to  grow 
warm — those  same  hands  that  had  been  nailed  to  the  cross 
— life  comes  back  into  that  body  which  had  been  pkrced 
by  the  soldier's  spear ;  he  burst  the  bands  of  death  ;  he 
broke  the  bars  of  the  grave,  and  came  forth  according  to 
his  word,  conquering  death  and  hell  for  us  as  well  as  for 
himself. 

Mr.  Moody  then,  in  his  scenic  and  effective  style,  pictured  the  events 
of  the  resurrection  morning,  and  of  the  eleven  times  when  the  risen 
Saviour  was  seen  by  his  friends  and  disciples  after  his  resurrection. 
The  first  of  these  was  his  appearance  to  Mary  Magdalene  ;  the  second, 
as  we  find  in  i  Corinthians  xv,  5,  6,  was  to  Cephas  or  Peter;  the 
third,  to  the  two  disciples  at  Emmaus  ;  the  fourth,  to  the  ten  disci- 
ples as  they  sat  at  meat  together ;  the  fifth,  about  a  week  afterward 
to  the  eleven,  Thomas,  who  was  absent  before,  this  time  being  with 
them  ;  the  sixth,  to  the  disciples  as  they  were  sitting  in  their  boats 
near  the  shore,  having  toiled  all  night  and  taken  nothing,  and  then  at 
his  command  they  let  down  their  nets  once  more  and  "  made  a  great 
haul ;"  the  seventh,  his  appearance  to  above  five  hundred  brethren 
at  once  somewhere  among  the  mountains  of  Galilee ;  the  eighth,  his 
appearance  to  James,  mentioned  in  1  Corinthians  xv,  7  ;  the  ninth, 
the  time  when  he  appeared  to  his  disciples  and  led  them  out  as  far 
as  Bethany,  where  he  ascended,  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of  their 
sight ;  the  tenth,  his  appearance  to  the  martyr  Stephen,  who,  when 
he  was  about  to  die,  saw  him  standing  at  the  right  hartd  of  God  ;  and, 
last,  his  appearance  to  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  his  way  to  Damascus.  He 
closed  by  advising  more  study  of  the  subject  of  the  resurrection  of 
Christ. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      315 


JESUS   THE  ANOINTED. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  nic,  because  lie  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken- 
hearted, to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight 
to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  arc  bruised,  to  preach  the  accepta- 
ble year  of  the  Lord. — Luke  iv,  18,  19. 

This  was  Christ's  inaugural  sermon. 

After  he  had  read  the  passage  as  recorded  by  the 
prophet  Isaiah  he  closed  the  book,  and  began  to  say  unto 
them,  "  This  day  is  this  scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears." 

It  was  a  sermon  at  Nazareth,  among  his  own  towns- 
people, lie  had  been  to  the  Jordan  ;  John  the  Baptist  had 
baptized  him,  and  the  people  had  heard  a  strange  voice 
which  spoke  from  heaven  when  he  came  up  out  of  the 
water.  Now  he  has  come  back  they  no  doubt  expect 
some  great  thing  from  him — and  they  get  it.  Christ 
preached  the  Gospel  to  them. 

A  great  many  people  don't  know  what  "  gospel  "  means. 
It  means  good  spell,  or  God's  spell,  the  same  as  is  meant 
in  my  text  by  "  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

In  that  sixty-first  chapter  of  Isaiah  Christ  stopped  right 
in  the  middle  of  the  sentence  ;  there  were  seven  things 
he  had  come  to  do,  but  he  omitted  to  say  any  thing  about 
"the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God."  His  business,  then, 
was  to  preach  the  Gospel  ;  so  he  stopped  at  that  place 
and  shut  up  the  book.  But  he  will  come  back  again  by 
and  by,  and  open  it  again,  and  commence  where  he  left 
off.  Now  he  is  on  the  mercy-seat  ;  but  then,  when  you 
cry  for  mercy,  you  will  find  that  vengeance  has  begun. 

One  proof  that  people  do  not  believe  the  Bible  is,  that 


316      Moody-:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

they  wear  long  faces  when  they  are  invited  to  come  to 
Christ,  as  if  they  had  been  invited  to  attend  a  funeral  or 
an  execution.  The  Gospel  is  good  tidings  of  great  joy. 
No  better  news  ever  fell  upon  mortal  ears  than  the  Gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God. 

Christ  here  tells  his  neighbors  what  he  was  anointed  to 
do.  We  find  that  Moses  was  anointed,  and  that  when  he 
went  down  to  Egypt  terrible  plagues  fell  upon  the  Egyp- 
tians ;  Elijah  was  anointed  of  God  for  the  work  of  a 
prophet,  and  he  called  down  fire  from  heaven  ;  Gideon 
was  anointed  as  a  leader  of  the  Lord's  hosts,  and  he  slew 
his  enemies  by  thousands  ;  the  Spirit  of  God  came  upon 
Samson,  and  he  did  the  same  thing ;  but  when  Christ 
comes  he  says,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  not  to 
take  away  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them  from  death.  The 
only  man  that  ever  really  lost  any  thing  through  Christ 
was  the  man  whose  ear  Peter  cut  off,  and  in  less  than  five 
minutes  he  got  it  back  again  just  as  good  as  ever. 

I  like  the  Gospel  because  it  came  to  destroy  four  of  my 
worst  enemies.  The  first  of  these  is  death.  Up  in  that 
little  village  in  New  England  where  I  came  from  they 
used  to  toll  the  bell  when  any  one  died,  striking  it  once 
for  every  year.  I  used  to  think  when  the  bell  struck 
seventy,  and  sometimes  eighty,  Ah,  death  is  a  good 
way  off ;  but  sometimes  it  only  struck  a  few  times,  and 
then  it  used  to  seem  very  solemn. 

The  thought  of  death  used  to  trouble  me  so  that  some- 
times I  couldn't  sleep  in  a  room  alone  ;  but,  thanks  be  unto 
God,  who  giveth  us  the  victory,  it  doesn't  trouble  me  any 
now.  I  have  learned  to  answer  that  question,  "  O  death, 
where  is  thy  sting  ?"  by  replying — 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      317 

Buried  in  the  bosom  of  the  Son  of  God  ! 
There  is  a  psalm  which  some  people  always  quote 
wrong:  "When  I  pass  through  the  dark  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil."  Hut  there  isn't 
any  "dark"  there.  Men  put  it  there;  God  does  not. 
That  valley  is  not  dark  any  more  since  Jesus  Christ  went 
through  it.  lie  seized  death  and  bound  him  hand  and 
foot,  and  took  away  all  his  power  over  those  who  believe 
in  the  Son  of  God.  The  only  dark  thing  that  is  left  there 
now  is  the  shadow  of  death  ;  but  you  know  there  is  noth- 
ing terrible  in  a  shadow;  the  substance  isn't  there  any 
more. 

Another  enemy  which  the  Gospel  of  Christ  destroys 
is  sin.  Sin  brought  death  into  the  world,  but  Christ 
takes  sin  away. 

Can  you  find  any  thing  of  a  cloud  after  it  has  vanished 
from  the  sky  ?     Weil,  God  has  promised  to  blot  out  our 
sins  as  a  cloud,  and  our  iniquities  as  a  thick  cloud. 
Another  enemy  is  the  grave. 

It  used  to  frighten  me  to  hear  the  earth  falling  on   the 
coffins,  but  now  I  hear  the  voice  of  Christ,  saying  : — 
"  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day." 
The   fourth    enemy   that   I  used  to  be   afraid  of  is,  the 
judgment. 

But  now  the  judgment  for  sin  has  passed.  Christ  has 
been  judged  for  us  ;  Christ  has  been  condemned  lor  us  ; 
Christ  has  been  slain  for  us,  the  just  for  the  unjust. 
There  is  to  be  a  day  of  judgment  to  settle  the  rewards  ol 
our  stewardship,  but  no  more  judgment  for  our  sins  it  we 
have  accepted  Christ,  who  was  judged,  condemned,  and 
slain  in  our  stead.     The  Gospel  says  of  the    believer  in 


3 1 S      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Christ,  he  "shall  not  come  into  condemnation;   but    is 
passed  from  death  unto  life." 

That  is  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  do  you  think 
people  ought  to  be  gloomy  or  to  put  on  long  faces  when 
they  hear  it  ? 

Away  out  on  the  prairie,  out  in  the  western  country,  in 
the  autumn,  when  there  hasn't  been  any  rain  for  months, 
sometimes  the  prairie  grass  catches  fire,  and  if  there 
comes  up  a  very  strong  wind,  the  flames  just  roll  along  in 
a  wall  of  fire  twenty  feet  high,  and  go  sometimes  at  the 
rate  of  twenty  miles  an  hour. 

When  the  frontier  men  see  it  coming  what  do  they  do  ? 
They  know  they  cannot  run  as  fast  as  the  fire  can.  Not 
the  fleetest  horse  can  escape  from  that  fire.  They  just 
take  a  match  and  light  the  grass  around  them,  and  then 
they  get  into  the  burnt  place,  and  are  safe.  They  hear 
the  flames  roar ;  they  see  death  coming  towards  them  ; 
but  they  do  not  fear,  they  do  not  tremble  ;  because 
the  fire  has  passed  over  the  place  where  they  are,  and 
there  is  no  clanger.     There  is  nothing  for  the  fire  to  burn. 

There  is  one  mountain  peak  that  the  wrath  of  God  has 
swept  over — that  is  mount  Calvary  ;  and  that  fire  spent  its 
fury  upon  the  bosom  of  the  Son  of  God.  Take  your  stand 
here  by  his  cross,  where  Christ  died  for  you,  and  you  will 
be  safe  for  time  and  eternity. 

I  have  read  of  a  Russian  nobleman  whose  son  was  wild 
and  unmanageable,  so  he  sent  him  into  the  army,  hoping 
the  strict  discipline  might  correct  him  ;  but  he  made  a 
very  great  mistake  in  supposing  that  a  change  of  circum- 
stances would  save  the  boy  ;  what  he  needed  is  just  what 
all  sinners  need — a  change  of  heart. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      319 

Instead  of  growing  better,  this  young  man  got  worse 
and  worse.  He  borrowed  money  as  long  as  he  could,  and 
spent  it  in  gambling  and  dissipation,  and  when  at  last 
he  could  borrow  no  longer,  he  was  sued  for  debt  and  was 
in  danger  of  being  sent  to  prison. 

On  the  night  before  he  was  to  be  tried  as  a  defaulter  he 
sat  in  his  barracks,  thinking  over  his  wicked  course. 
After  awhile  he  took  a  piece  of  paper  and  wrote  down 
upon  it  all  the  sums  of  money  he  owed,  that  he  might 
see  how  bad  his  case  really  was.  It  made  a  long,  long 
list,  and  when  he  came  to  add  it  up  he  was  altogether 
in  despair.  Then  he  wrote  underneath  the  figures  these 
words  :  "  Who  will  pay  all  these  debts  for  me  ? "  and 
with  his  head  bowed  upon  the  barrack  table,  he  wept 
himself  to  sleep. 

It  chanced  that  the  emperor,  who  was  accustomed  to 
go  about  in  disguise,  came  that  night  at  a  late  hour 
through  these  barracks  where  the  young  soldier  was 
asleep.  Noticing  him  there,  and  the  paper  beside  him, 
he  guessed  at  once  what  was  the  matter.  So  he  took  the 
paper  and  read  it  :  then,  without  awaking  the  broken- 
hearted boy,  he  wrote  under  the  question,  "  Who  will  pay 
all  these  debts  for  me?"  the  single  word  Nicholas. 

When  the  young  soldier  awoke  and  looked  again  at  the 
paper  he  was  overwhelmed  with  surprise  to  see  the  signa- 
ture ot  the  emperor  underneath  his  list  of  debts.  It 
seemed  too  good  to  be  true,  but  early  in  the  morning  sure 
enough  the  money  came  from  the  emperor ;  he  paid  all 
his  debts,  and  was  saved  from  a  felon's  cell. 

I  don't  know  whether  this  story  is  true  or  not,  but  I 
know  that  a  greater  Emperor  than  Nicholas  has  paid  my 


320      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

long  list  of  debts  and  sins,  and  in  his  glorious  love  and 
mercy  I  am  a  free  man.  No  prison  for  me  ;  no  condem- 
nation for  me  : — 

"Jesus  paid  it  all, 

All  the  debt  I  owe  ; 
Sin  had  left  a  crimson  stain  ; 
He  washed  it  white  as  snow." 

II. 

"  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted." 

The  next  thing  that  Christ  says  he  came  to  do  is  to  heal 
the  broken-hearted  ;  to  carry  our  sorrows  as  well  as  to 
atone  for  sins.  I  often  wonder  why  so  many  people  with 
broken  hearts  persist  in  carrying  their  sorrow,  when  Christ 
offers  to  carry  it  for  them  and  they  might  cast  their  bur- 
den upon  him. 

There  is  no  class  of  people  who  are  free  from  broken  hearts. 
Some  years  ago  I  used  to  visit  from  house  to  house  among 
the  poor  of  this  city,  and  since  then  I  have  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  a  good  many  people  who  were  rich,  but  I  find 
broken  hearts  every-where,  among  rich  and  poor,  high  and 
low,  wise  and  ignorant.  There  are  no  hearts  strong  enough 
to  stand  the  strain  and  the  blows  of  this  sorrowful  world. 

I  made  five  calls  one  day,  and  at  every  house  I  found  a 
broken  heart.  The  first  was  a  mother  whose  son  had 
come  home  drunk  the  night  before :  she  had  never  known 
of  his  bad  habits  until  then.  The  next  was  a  mother 
whose  little  family  of  children  had  been  broken  by  death 
since  my  last  visit.  The  third  was  a  wife  whose  husband 
had  cruelly  deserted  her,  and  she  neither  knew  where  he 
was  nor  how  she  was  to  live  through  the  winter,  which 
was  then  coming  on.     I  need 'not  tell  you  the  others,  but 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ,      321 

in  every  house  I  entered  that  afternoon  there  was  an  af- 
flicted heart. 

I  met  a  young  man  at  the  inquiry-meeting  last  night 
who  had  been  so  full  of  grief  and" despair  that  he  said  he 
had  been  down  to  the  lake  night  after  night,  looked  into 
its  dark  waters,  and  half  resolved  to  take  the  deadly  plunge. 

If  all  the  sorrows  in  this  city  were  written  down,  this 
building  couldn't  hold  the  books  which  would  be  written. 
Kver  since  Adam  was  driven  out  of  Eden  this  world  has 
been  no  stranger  to  tears,  and  I  wonder  how  it  is  that  so 
many  people  can  stay  away  from  Christ,  who  offers  to 
bear  our  griefs  and  carry  our  sorrows  if  we  will  only  lay 
them  on  him.  The  Bible  tells  us  of  Jacob  weeping  over 
the  bloody  coat  of  his  darling  Joseph  ;  of  the  tears  of 
David  as  he  went  up  to  his  chamber,  crying  out,  "  O  Ab- 
salom, would  to  God  I  had  died  for  thee  ! "  And  anions 
the  first  sounds  the  Son  of  God  heard  when  he  came  into 
this  world  were  the  voices  of  those  Bethlehem  mothers, 
weeping  over  the  loss  of  their  infant  sons  killed  by  the 
-soldiers  of  Herod. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  that  little  word  "sent." 
"He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted."  My 
friends,  no  matter  how  great  a  work  any  man  has  to  do, 
he  will  be  certain  to  succeed  in  it  if  only  God  has  sent 
him.  God  sent  Moses  down  to  Egypt  to  bring  out  three 
millions  of  slaves.  When  he  got  there  the  proud  King 
Pharaoh  said  they  shouldn't  go,  but  that  didn't  make  any 
difference  with  Moses.  God  had  sent  him,  and  he  was 
certain  to  succeed.  God  sent  Joshua  to  capture  the  land 
of  Canaan.  The  cities  were  great,  and  walled  up  to  heav- 
en ;  but  when  the  proper  time  came,  the  walls  of  Jericho 
14* 


322      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

fell  down.  God  sent  Gideon,  and  Samson,  and  Elisha 
against  great  odds,  but  never  one  of  them  failed.  And  if 
the  Son  of  God  is  "sent  to  heal  the  broken-hearted" — if 
God  sends  him — is  he  irot  certain  to  succeed  ? 

If  you  break  your  arm  or  your  leg,  you  straightway  call 
a  doctor  to  mend  it  for  you  ;  but  if  you  break  your  heart 
what  are  you  going  to  do  ? 

In  the  time  of  Christ  they  didn't  have  any  hospitals,  but 
if  there  were  people  sick  in  the  house  they  brought  them 
to  the  door  that  people  passing  by  might  see  them  ;  and 
if  any  one  went  by  who  had  suffered  from  such  disease  lie 
would  stop  and  tell  the  sick  man  how  he  had  been  cured. 
Sometimes  this  worked  well  enough,  but  a  great  many  sick 
people  never  found  any  one  who  knew  the  right  remedy. 
When  the  Son  of  God  came  and  walked  along  those  roads 
they  brought  out  the  sick  people  for  him  to  see,  and  every 
one  that  was  brought  to  him  was  healed.  He  only  spoke 
the  word  and  it  was  done.  He  knew  a  remedy  for  all  the 
diseases.  He  has  still  a  balm  for  every  wound.  He  knows 
how  to  heal  the  suffering  soul  as  well  as  the  broken  and 
wounded  body ;  and  yet  you  try  to  carry  all  your  heavy 
sorrows  yourselves,  instead  of  laying  them  on  him.  You 
try  every  other  doctor  before  you  come  to  the  great 
Physician. 

I  know  two  wives  in  this  city  whose  husbands  are 
dead,  and  they  utterly  refuse  to  be  comforted  ;  they  will 
die  of  broken  hearts  before  long  unless  they  learn  to  cast 
their  cares  on  Him  who  careth  for  them. 

Three  years  ago  a  gentleman  in  this  city  took  his  wife 
and  four  children  to  New  York  and  put  ihem  on  that 
French   steamer  to  cross  the  ocean.     There  was  a  col- 


Outlines  of  Doctrink— Jesus  Christ.      323 

lision,  and  the  mother,  with  her  children  around  her,  went 
down  on  the  deck  of  that  vessel.  She  was  afterward 
picked  up,  but  the  children  were  never  found.  When 
she  reached  England  and  I  heard  of  the  awful  calamity, 
I  left  my  work  and  hastened  down  to  comfort  the  childless, 
broken-hearted  mother.  But  I  found  that  Jesus  had  been 
there  before  me.  It  seemed  as  if  she  had  been  permitted 
to  take  her  little  family  right  up  to  the  gates  of  heaven, 
see  them  safely  in,  and  then  came  back  again  for  a  little 
while  to  do  some  more  work  for  the  Master.  Those  chil- 
dren used  to  come  to  our  North  Side  meeting  with  their 
mother,  and  one  night  they  said,  "  Mamma,  may  we  not  go 
with  the  rest  into  the  inquiry  room  and  learn  how  to  come 
to  Jesus  ? "  The  mother  brought  them  in,  and  in  a  little 
while  they  were  soundly,  intelligently  converted,  and  we 
received  them  as  members  of  the  Church  ;  and  now  Christ 
had  taken  the  children  all  at  once  to  himself,  but  he  did 
not  forget  to  bind  up  the  heart  that  must  otherwise  have 
broken.  That  mother  herself  was  telling  this  sad  story  at 
the  woman's  meeting  in  Farwell  Hall  the  other  day,  or  I 
should  not  have  felt  at  liberty  to  tell  it  here. 

A  mother  once  came  to  me  and  said,  "  I  have  a  boy  who 
is  a  wanderer.  I  know  not  where  he  is.  I  would  go  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth  if  I  could  only  find  him  ;  and  how 
can  I  cast  such  a  burden  as  that  upon  the  Lord  ? " 

•'  Do  you  not  think  he  could  carry  it  ? "  said  I. 

*'  Yes  ;  but  I  cannot  cast  it  off." 

"  Well,  then,  do  not  blame  Christ  for  not  carrying  it,  so 
long  as  you  will  not  let  him  have  it." 

"  But  how  am  I  ever  to  be  comforted  if  I  never  can  reach 
my  lost  boy  ?  " 


324      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

"  You  can  reach  him  by  way  of  the  throne,"  said  I. 

Then  I  told  her  of  some  people  down  in  Indiana  whose 
son  came  to  this  city,  and  before  he  had  been  here  many 
weeks  was  seen  by  one  of  his  old  neighbors  lying  drunk 
on  the  street.  The  man  didn't  like  to  tell  his  parents,  but 
at  last  he  thought  if  his  own  boy  had  been  seen  in  that 
condition  he  should  certainly  want  to  know  it,  so  he  told 
the  father,  and  the  father  told  the  mother.  They  did  not 
sleep  any  that  night.  They  wrestled  all  night  in  prayer  for 
their  lost  boy,  and  just  as  the  morning  dawned  his  mother 
said,  "  I  have  an  answer  from  the  Lord.  I  don't  know 
when  our  son  is  going  to  be  saved,  but  God  has  told  me 
that  he  shall  not  die  a  drunkard."  One  week  from  that  day 
that  young  man  started  for  his  home,  three  hundred  miles 
away,  and  as  he  entered  the  door  he  said,  "  Mother,  I  have 
come  to  ask  you  to  pray  for  my  soul."  It  was  not  long 
before  he  was  happily  converted,  and  then  he  returned  to 
Chicago  to  become  a  useful  and  active  Christian. 

But  some  one  says,  "  How  shall  I  come  to  Christ  with 
my  troubles?"  Come  to  him  feeling  and  believing  him 
to  be  your  personal  friend.  Pour  out  all  your  sorrows  be- 
fore him.     He  has  time  enough  to  hear  them  all. 

Mr.  Moody  then  related  the  familiar  story  of  the  little  girl  who 
went  to  President  Lincoln  in  behalf  of  her  brother  who  had  been  con- 
demned to  be  shot  for  sleeping  at  his  post.  He  had  taken  the  picket 
duty  of  a  friend  the  night  before,  and  thus  was  on  watch  two  nights 
in  succession.  The  intercession  of  this  little  sister  saved  his  life,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  gave  him  a  furlough  to  visit  his  home  for  her  sake. 

But  don't  think  for  a  moment  that  the  tender  heart  of 
that  great  man  can  for  one  moment  be  compared  with  the 
tenderness  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  His  compassion  is 
infinite.   '  He  pitied  us  so  much  and  loved  us  so  well  that 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      325 

he  gave  his  very  life  to   save   us.     Come,  then,  to  Christ 
with  all  your  sorrows  as  well  as  with  all  your  sins." 

III. 

"  To  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives." 

Now  let  us  take  the  third  clause  of  the  verse :  "  To 
preach  deliverance  to  the  captives."  In  the  forty-ninth 
chapter  of  Isaiah,  at  the  twenty-fourth  verse,  are  these 
words  :  "  Shall  the  prey  be  taken  from  the  mighty,  or  the 
lawful  captive  delivered  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  says  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  "  I  am  come  for  that 
very  purpose."  Now,  my  friends,  just  ask  yourselves  the 
question,  whether  a  sinner  can  forgive  himself,  or  a  con- 
victed criminal  save  himself  from  the  penalty  of  the  law 
he  has  broken.  If  he  is  to  be  delivered  at  all  there  must 
be  a  deliverer,  for  he  cannot  deliver  himself.  This  text 
tells  us  who  the  deliverer  is — Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God.  Suppose  I  were  to  tell  you  that  there  is  no  way  for 
you  to  escape  from  the  perdition  of  ungodly  men — that 
eternal  death  is  certainly  waiting  for  you — and  that  noth- 
ing can  possibly  save  you  from  it — you  would  all  reject 
such  doctrine.  Even  the  thieves  and  gamblers  who  have 
strayed  in  here  to-night  would  reject  such  terrible  doctrine 
as  that. 

Mr.  George  H.  Stuart  told  me  that  he  was  once  asked 
by  Governor  Curtin,  of  Pennsylvania,  to  go  and  tell  a 
man  who  had  been  condemned  to  die  for  murder  that 
there  was  no  hope  of  his  being  pardoned.  When  he  went 
into  the  cell  the  wretched  man  said  to  him  :  "  You  are  a 
good  man.  You  have  come  to  bring  me  good  news." 
And  when  he  heard  the  message  the  governor  had  sent 


326      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

he  fainted  away.  It  is  an  awful  thing  to  have  the  last 
hope  taken  away.  But,  thanks  be  to  God !  there  is  hope 
for  .the  blackest-hearted  sinner  in  the  love  and  mercy  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

You  are  a  lawful  captive  :  you  are  under  just  condemna- 
tion for  your  sins.  Read  the  Bible  carefully  and  you  will 
find  that  it  talks  altogether  different  about  human  nature 
from  what  some  of  our  modern  ministers  do.  The  devil 
has  all  the  while  been  preaching  up  the  greatness  of  man, 
and  some  men  in  our  pulpits  are  doing  the  same  thing. 
Satan  has  been  busy  for  eighteen  hundred  years  binding 
men  in  his  chains  and  making  captives  of  them,  and 
Christ  says  he  has  come  to  set  the  captives  free. 

Satan  goes  about  his  work  very  slily.  He  winds  around 
us  a  golden  spider's  web,  which  we  could  blow  away  with 
a  breath  ;  then  he  binds  us  with  a  thread  ;  and  we  say,  "  C), 
that  is  nothing  ;  I  can  break  that  any  time."  But  he  goes 
on  winding  his  threads  around  us,  and  they  get  larger  and 
stronger  all  the  time,  till  at  last  he  has  bound  us  hand 
and  foot,  and  then  he  mocks  our  helpless  sorrow  and  our 
vain  struggles  to  get  away. 

The  Son  of  God  has  power  to  break  every  band  and  fetter, 
to  deliver  every  captive,  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free. 

But  the  first  thing  for  us  to  understand  is  the  fact  that 
we  are  really  captives.  Do  any  of  you  doubt  it  ?  Let  me 
just  ask  you  a  question  or  two.  How  many  times  have  you 
thought  over  your  sins  and  made  up  your  mind  to  forsake 
them  ?  Perhaps  you  have  been  in  the  habit  of  swearing, 
and  have  resolved  to  stop.  And  how  have  you  succeeded  ? 
Didn't  you  find  the  same  old  oaths  and  curses  jumping 
out  every  time  you  got  mad  ?     Didn'.t  you  find  that  the 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      327 

old  habit  was  too  strong  for  you  ?  Ah,  my  friend,  that 
shows  that  Satan  has  captured  you  and  bound  you  in  that 
terrible  habit  of  blaspheming,  and  you  will  never  be  able 
to  get  free  without  the  help  of  Christ  the  deliverer. 

But  suppose  you  can  break  off  all  your  sins,  what  are 
you  going  to  do  with  your  past,  sins  ? 

I'll  tell  you  what  to  do  with  them — bring  them  to 
Christ.  Do  you  want  to  stop  swearing  ?  Come  to  Christ 
and  ask  him  to  give  you  a  new  heart,  a  heart  that  hasn't 
any  curses  in  it,  and  then  you  will  be  free  from  that  chain 
of  the  devil.  You  have  a  quick  temper ;  well,  bring  it  to 
Christ,  and  he  will  give  you  a  new  temper.  Just  give  up 
all  hope  of  being  able  to  save  yourself,  and  let  the  Lord 
deliver  you.  Just  let  the  cry  go  up,  "  I  am  a  captive," 
and  see  how  quick  Jesus  Christ  will  come  to  your  de- 
liverance ! 

I  remember  hearing  of  a  little  fellow  who  was  met  on 
his  way  home  from  school  by  a  great  ruffianly  boy,  a  good 
deal  bigger  than  he  was,  who  tried  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 
him.  "  I  can't  fight  you,"  said  the  little  boy,  "  but  you 
just  wait  till  I  go  and  fetch  my  big  brother,"  and  he  ran 
off  as  hard  as  he  could  to  find  his  big  brother  ;  but  when 
they  came  back  the  coward  wasn't  there. 

My  friends,  you  are  no  match  for  Satan,  and  when  he 
wants  to  fight  you  just  run  to  your  elder  Brother,  who  is 
more  than  a  match  for  all  the  devils  in  hell. 

Society  is  divided  into  a  great  many  different  classes, 
but  God  only  knows  two  classes.  The  cross  of  Calvary 
divided  the  world  into  these  two  classes  :  those  who  are 
under  the  power  of  Satan,  and  those  who  are  under  the 
grace  of  Jesus  Christ. 


328      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Who  is  your  master  ?  Have  you  never  been  delivered 
from  the  power  of  that  slavery  into  which  you  were  born  ? 
Then  change  masters  here  to-night.  Satan  will  hold  you 
tighter  and  tighter.  He  don't  care  at  all  what  sort  of 
chains  he  binds  you  with,  so  that  you  are  bound  ;  or  in 
what  sort  of  a  chariot  you  ride  to  ruin.  He  is  just  as 
willing  you  should  go  down  to  hell  from  a  soft-cushioned 
pew  in  one  of  these  fine  churches  as  in  any  other  way,  so 
as  he  can  only  get  you.  But  if  you  choose  to  be  on  the 
Lord's  side  to-night — give  yourself  to  God  to-night,  trust- 
ing wholly  and  solely  in  him — he  will  take  you  by  his  right 
hand,  and  lead  you  right  past  any  saloon  or  billiard-hall,  or 
any  other  place  of  iniquity,  without  your  having  the  slight- 
est wish  for  the  old-time  pleasure  and  the  old-time  sin. 

Don't  forget  that  it  is  Christ  who  is  the  deliverer,  not 
the  Church.  All  the  Churches  in  the  world  never  yet 
saved  one  sinner,  but  Christ  has  saved  a  great  many,  and 
he  is  ready  and  waiting  to  save  you. 

There  was  a  struggle  on  Calvary  between  the  lion  of 
hell  and  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah.  The  waves  of 
death  broke  upon  the  Son  of  God  on  the  cross,  like  the 
angry  ocean  dashing  its  fierce  waves  against  the  rocks  of 
the  shore.  Look  at  those  fiends  as  they  rush  upon  the 
Man  of  Sorrows  nailed  there  upon  the  cross  !  But  all 
at  once  he  cries  out,  "It  is  finished!"  Victory  over 
death  and  hell  !  Up,  up,  up,  he  goes,  and  takes  his  place 
upon  the  mercy-seat.  O  !  I  had  a  great  deal  rather  have 
him  there  than  anywhere  else.  Where  else  could  he  be 
of  so  much  help  to  us  as  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  ? 

I  have  never  known  a  sinner  to  come  down  into  the 
dust  before  Christ  but  that  Christ  lifted  him  up.     Down 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      329 

there  in  the  inquiry  room,  sometimes,  it  seems  as  if  we 
could  hear  the  footsteps  of  the  Son  of  God  coming  to 
deliver  those  poor  captive  souls.  Hut  when  any  hody 
feels  too  proud  to  confess  his  sins,  that  man  doesn't  get 
out  of  prison  at  all. 

When  General  Grant  went  into  Richmond  I  went  in 
with  him,  and  started  to  find  our  boys  down  in  Libby 
Prison.  Nobody  had  told  them  how  near  our  army  was, 
and  the  first  they  knew  of  our  victory  they  heard  our  col- 
umns marching  up  the  street,  the  band  playing  "  The 
Star  Spangled  Banner."  Then  the  prison  doors  were 
thrown  open,  and  in  a  moment  they  were  free.  So  it 
shall  be  with  you  sinners,  bound  in  the  captivity  of  your 
own  lust,  or  passion,  or  appetite,  or  habit.  Let  Christ 
come  and  unbar  the  prison,  and  in   a  moment  you  are 

free. 

IV. 
"  Recovering  of  ^i  14H t  to  the  blind." 

I  want  to  take  up  one  more  clause  of  this  verse — "  the 
recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind." 

Satan  breaks  men's  hearts,  Christ  binds  them  up  ; 
Satan  takes  men  captive,  Christ  delivers  them  ;  Satan 
blinds  men,  Christ  opens  their  eyes. 

How  blind  those  people  of  Nazareth  must  have  been 
when  they  brought  the  Son  of  God  to  the  brow  of  the  hill, 
and  were  going  to  cast  him  down  because  he  preached  the 
Gospel  to  them ! 

How  blind  those  people  were  who  wanted  to  drive  him 
away  from  the  coasts,  after  he  had  cast  out  the  devils 
from  the  man  among  the  tombs,  just  because  they  had 
lost  some  swine ! 


330      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

How  blind  they  were  who  condemned  him,  and  brought 
him  to  Calvary,  and  nailed  him  to  the  cross  ! 

They  tell  us  there  are  about  three  "millions  of  blind 
people  in  the  world,  but  I  wonder  how  many  millions  there 
are  who  are  spiritually  blind  ?  We  have  a  very  tender 
sympathy  for  those  who  have  no  sight,  especially  for  those 
who  have  been  born  blind  ;  but  it  wouldn't  take  fifteen 
minutes  to  show  you  that  almost  all  the  people  in  Chicago 
are  in  that  condition,  as  far  as  spiritual  sight  is  con- 
cerned :  even  the  Church  hasn't  got  its  eyes  more  than 
half  open. 

At  one  of  our  meetings  in  London  one  night,  a  man 
was  speaking  with  great  power,  and  when  I  asked  who  it 
was,  they  told  me  it  was  Dr.  Moon,  the  blind  man,  who 
had  translated  the  Bible  into  seventy-two  languages  in 
raised  letters  for  the  blind.  That  man  had  a  congrega- 
tion of  two  millions  of  people,  and  he  had  never  seen  one 
of  them.  It  is  said  that  his  mother  mourned  over  him 
when  she  learned  that  he  was  hopelessly  blind,  saying,  "O 
my  poor  child,  who  will  take  care  of  you  when  I  am  gone  ?  " 
but  God  has  taken  care  of  her  blind  child,  and  made  him 
the  means  of  a  great  deal  of  sight  to  the  world. 

Now  I  want  to  take  up  some  of  the  different  classes  of 
people  in  this  city  who  are  blind. 

In  the  first  place,  there  are  some  of  our  leading  men 
who  are  money-blind.  The  god  of  this  world  has  been 
holding  up  dollars  and  cents  before  their  eyes  so  long 
that  they  have  set  their  hearts  upon  them,  and  now  they 
can  scarcely  see  any  thing  else. 

They  are  spending  all  their  time  and  strength  in  order 
to  get  rich.     God  has  given  them  the  desire  of  their  souls, 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      331 

and  just  sec  how  lean  and  miserable  they  are:  how  poor 
and  blind,  in  spite  of  all  their  wealth  ! 

Another  class  of  people,  a  large  class  in  these  days,  are 
blinded  by  politics.  There  will  be  a  great  many  sad  hearts 
over  this  election  inside  of  a  week.  Those  men  who  seek 
the  honor  that  cometh  from  men  are  making  a  wreck  of 
their  lives  and  going  down  to  ruin,  when  if  they  were  only 
seeking  the  honor  that  comes  from  above,  the  honor  which 
comes  from  God,  their  names  might  be  written  in  the 
book  of  life. 

Then  there  are  a  great  many  whose  eyes  have  been 
blinded  with  pleasure.  In  the  inquiry  meeting  the  other 
night  there  was  a  woman  who  said  to  me,  "  Mr.  Moody, 
there  is -a  ball  coming  off  in  a  few  days.  I  don't  want  to 
become  a  Christian  until  that  is  over." 

Another  lady  said  to  me,  "  I  should  not  like  to  become 
a  Christian,  because  I  should  have  to  give  up  all  pleasure." 

"  What  pleasure  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Theaters,  novels,  and  cards,"  she  replied. 

"What!  a  sensible  woman  like  you  weighing  such  trifles 
as  these  against  the  salvation  of  your  soul !  " 

"  Well,"  said  the  woman,  "  I  haven't  any  thing  else 
to  do." 

"  Nothing  else  to  do,  when  there  are  souls  waiting  for 
you  to  lead  them  to  Christ  ? " 

O  how  blind  such  a  soul  must  be ! 

Some  people  are  blinded  by  fashion.  They  always  want 
to  see  the  latest  patterns  in  dresses,  bonnets,  and  cloaks. 
One  woman  said  to  me,  "  I  always  think  of  a  new  dress, 
or  something,  whenever  I  kneel  down  to  pray."  You  laugh, 
but  how  many  of  you  are  guilty  of  just  such  sin  ami  folly  ? 


332     Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

If  you  fashionable  people  would  get  along  with  fewer 
dresses,  and  spend  some  of  your  pocket  money  relieving 
the  poor,,  you  would  show  a  great  deal  more  wisdom  than 
in  spending  you  lives  like  so  many  butterflies. 

Another  class  of  the  blinded  are  those  who  call  them- 
selves fast  men.  Here  is  a  young  man  with  a  thousand 
dollars  salary,  but  he  spends  three  thousand  dollars  a  year  ; 
and  by  and  by  his  employers  begin  to  suspect  him.  He 
takes  a  dollar  because  he  wants  to  go  to  the  theater  some 
night;  then  he  wants  to  go  two  nights,  so  he  takes  two 
dollars.  And  this  goes  on  until  he  is  discovered,  his  good 
name  gone  forever,  and  he  turned  out  upon  the  world  a 
wretched  and  ruined  man. 

There  are  a  great  many  young  men  in  this  city  who  are 
spending  their  time  and  money  at  the  gambling  table,  and 
how  long  do  you  think  it  will  be  before  those  poor  blinded 
souls  will  be  lost  ? 

There  is  another  class  of  people  who  are  wretchedly 
blind.  I  saw  one  of  these  young  men  as  I  was  coming 
down  to  the  Tabernacle  to-night.  Now  listen  to  what 
Solomon  says  about  him  :  "  At  the  window  of  my  house  I 
looked  through  my  casement,  and  beheld  among  the  sim- 
ple ones  ...  a  young  man  void  of  understanding,  .  .  . 
and,  behold,  there  met  him  a  woman  with  the  attire  of  a 
harlot,  and  subtle  of  heart.  .  .  .  She  caught  him,  and 
kissed  him,  and  with  an  impudent  face  said  unto  him,  .  .  . 
I  have  decked  my  bed  with  coverings  of  tapestry,  .  .  . 
I  have  perfumed  my  bed  with  myrrh,  aloes,  and  cinna- 
mon. Come,  let  us  take  our  fill  of  love  until  the  morning  : 
let  us  solace  ourselves  with  loves.  ...  He  goeth  after  her 
straightway,  as  an  ox  goeth  to  the  slaughter,  or  as  a  fool 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      333 

to  the  correction  of  the  stocks.  . .  .  For  she  hath  cast  down 
many  wounded  :  yea,  many  strong  men  have  been  slain  by 
her.  Her  house  is  the  way  to  hell,  going  down  to  the 
chambers  of  death." 

And  I  don't  know  a  much  shorter  way  to  hell  than  that. 

Some  of  you  who  have  come  up  from  the  country,  from 
pious  homes,  may  find  yourselves  disgraced,  corrupted,  and 
destroyed  just  because  you  suffer  the  god'of  this  world  to 
blind  your  hearts  to  the  damning  sin  of  licentiousness. 

May  the  Lord  open  your  eyes  to-night  to  see  your  dan- 
ger and  your  sin  !  Then  when  you  get  your  eyes  opened 
a  little,  and  have  taken  a  good  look  at  your  miserable  self, 
look  at  once  to  Christ,  and  by  looking  at  him  you  will  see 
his  beauty,  learn  to  love  him,  and  come  to  be  like  him. 


CHRIST  THE  SAVIOUR. 

I  WAS  once  preaching  about  Christ  as  our  Saviour,  and 
after  I  had  got  through  I  was  telling  the  good  Scotch- 
man at  whose  house  I  lodged  how  badly  I  felt  over  the 
discourse.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  made  a  failure 
of  it. 

"Ha,  mon,"  replied  he,  "ye  dinna  think  ye  can  tell 
a'  aboot  Christ  in  ane  hour,  d'ye?" 

We  must  meet  Christ  first  at  Calvary;  there,  where  he 
died,  is  where  we  get  our  life.  When  we  come  to  know 
him  as  our  Saviour,  then  we  are  ready  to  go  on  and 
know  him  in  his  other  offices. 

There  was  a  man  I  once  knew  who  could  never  hear  a 
certain   name  mentioned  without  the  tears  coming  into 


334      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

his  eyes,  and  I  asked  him  what  it  meant.  "  Well,"  said 
he,  "  that  man  saved  me."  And  then  he  went  on  to  tell 
me  how  he  had  got  into  trouble,  and  had  taken  some 
money  from  his  employer  hoping  to  replace  it,  but  being 
unable  to  do  so,  the  whole  thing  was  in  danger  of  com- 
ing out,  and  he  would  have  been  ruined  ;  but  he  went  to 
this  friend  and  opened  his  heart  to  him,  and  the  friend 
lent  him  the  money,  which  saved  him.  "And  now,"  said 
he,  "  I  would  give  my  life  for  that  man,  if  need  be." 

What  gratitude  ought  we  to  feel  toward  Christ,  who 
has  saved  us,  redeemed  us,  and  brought  us  out  from 
under  the  curse  of  the  law,  not  with  money,  but  with  his 
own  precious  blood ! 


CHRIST  THE   KEEPER. 

A  FRIEND  of  mine  was  once  asked  what  "persuasion" 
he  belonged  to.  He  replied,  "  I  am  of  the  same  persua- 
sion as  St.  Paul." 

"  What  persuasion  is  that  ?  " 

"  Why,"  he  said,  "  I  am  persuaded  he  is  able  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day." 

My  friends,  that  was  a  very  good  persuasion — the  very 
best  I  know  of. 

In  Psalm  exxi  it  says:  "He  that  keepeth  thee  will 
not  slumber.  Behold,  he  that  keepeth  Israel  shall  nei- 
ther slumber  nor  sleep."  Don't  let  the  devil  deceive 
you,  and  make  you  feel  discouraged  because  you  cannot 
keep  yourselves  from  sin  ;  that  isn't  your  business ;  that 
is  Christ's  business. 

Now,  I  seem  to  hear  some  one  saying,  "I  don't  under- 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      335 

stand  this  committing  myself  to  Christ  as  my  keeper." 
Well,  I'll  give  you  an  illustration.  Suppose  you  had  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  your  pocket,  and  you  knew 
that  the  city  was  full  of  thieves,  what  would  you  do?  I 
suppose  you  would  find  out  the  best  and  safest  bank  in 
Chicago,  and  give  the  money  to  it  to  keep  for  you.  Just 
that  thing  is  what  you  want  to  do  with  your  soul.  You 
are  worth  more,  than  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
the  devil  is  watching  to  steal  you,  but  Christ  offers  to 
take  care  of  you.  "The  Lord  is  thy  keeper."  "  The  Lord 
shall  preserve  thee  from  all  evil." 

In  the  Zoological  Gardens  in  Manchester  there  was  a 
lion  and  a  little  dog  which  lived  in  the  same  cage. 

It  appears  that  one  day  a  rough  man  about  the 
grounds  got  very  angry  with  his  dog  because  it 
wouldn't  fight  another  dog  on  a  wager ;  and,  after  whip- 
ping him  most  cruelly,  he  thrust  him  into  the  lion's 
cage,  expecting  to  see  him  torn  to  pieces  in  an  instant ; 
but  the  little  dog  ran  to  the  lion  for  protection,  and  the 
great  beast  took  a  liking  to  him,  and  they  came  to  be 
fast  friends.  After  awhile  the  man  got  over  his  mad  fit, 
and  wanted  his  dog  back  again.  So  he  went  to  the  cage 
and  called,  but  the  dog  wouldn't  come.  Then  he  thrust 
his  hand  into  the  cage  to  try  to  get  him,  but  the  lion 
growled  and  lifted  his  paw,  and  the  man  was  glad  to 
take  his  hand  out  right  quick.  Then  he  went  to  the 
keeper  of  the  lion,  and  asked  him  to  get  his  dog  out  for 
him.  "How  did  the  dog  get  into  the  lion's  cage?" 
asked  the  keeper,  and  the  man  was  obliged  to  confess 
that  he  had  put  him  in  himself.  "Then  he  shall  stay 
there,"  said   the  keeper.     And  so  the  man   lost  his  dog 


336      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

altogether,  for  the   little  fellow  had  found   a  protector 
who  was  stronger  than  his  old  master. 

Young  convert,  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  is  more 
than  a  match  for  your  old  master,  the  devil.  Put  your- 
self under  his  protection,  and  you  will  be  eternally  safe. 


CHRIST   THE    LIGHT. 

I  WANT  to  speak  a  little  while  on  Christ  as  the  Light. 
"  If  any  man  follow  me,"  says  Christ,  "  he  shall  not  walk 
in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life."  It  is  only 
when  the  earth  turns  to  the  sun  that  it  is  daylight.  So 
with  the  soul;  its  day  is  in  the  light  of  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness.  When  it  is  dark  and  stormy  in  the 
valley,  if  you  climb  the  mountain  perhaps  you  will  get 
above  the  cloud  :  so  faith  will  lift  you  into  the  eternal 
sunshine. 

And  if  Christ  is  our  light  we  also  must  shine  for  the 
world.  A  friend  of  mine  said  he  once  saw  a  blind  man 
going  along  one  dark  night  carrying  a  lantern  in  his 
hand.  He  was  very  much  surprised  at  it,  and  asked  the 
man  what  use  the  lantern  could  possibly  be  to  him. 

"  O,"  said  the  blind  man,  "  I  carry  the  lantern  to  keep 
people  from  stumbling  over  me."  Christian,  that  is  a 
good  lesson  for  you. 

Some  young  converts  were  once  set  upon  by  an  infidel 
who  laughed  at  their  religion,  and  said  it  was  all  moon- 
shine. "  Thank  you  for  that  compliment,"  said  one  of 
them  ;  "  that  is  just  what  it  is.  We  only  shine  by  the 
light  of  the  Sun." 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      ydy 


CHRIST   THE    GOOD    SHEPHERD. 

A  FRIEND  of  mine,  who  has  traveled   in  the  East,  told 

me  of  one  day  meeting  a  shepherd,  who   had  a  large 

flock  of  sheep  in  a  region  where  it  was  the  custom  to 

have  a  name  for  every  sheep. 

"  Do  you  know  the  names  of  every  one  of  your  flock  ?  " 

asked  my  friend. 

"  O  yes." 

"  Well,  call  some  of  them,  and  let  me  see  if  they  know 

their  own  names." 

So  the  shepherd   called   one  after  another,  and   they 

came  up  and  stood  by  his  side. 

"  How  in   the  world  can  you  tell  these  sheep  apart? 

They  look  all  alike  to  me." 

"  Don't  you  see  that  that  sheep  has  lost  a  little  bit 

of  wool?     That  one  is  a  little  cross-eyed;  this  one  is  a 

little  bow-legged;  and  that  one  over  there  turns  his  toes 

in?"     And  so  he  went  on  describing  each  sheep  by  his 

faults  and  imperfections. 

Ah,  my  friends,  I  am  afraid  that  is  the  way  the  Good 

Shepherd  knows  some  of  us  most  easily. 

But  let  us  trust  to  the  care  of  this  Shepherd.     He  will 

take  care  of  his  flock.     We  read  in  the  Scriptures  that  a 

lion  and  a  bear  once  came  and  took  a  lamb  out  of  David's 

flock,  and  he  rose  up  against  them,  plucked  the  lamb  out 

of  their  paws,  and  slew  both  the  lion  and  the  bear.    How 

much  more  shall  Jesus,  the  Good  Shepherd,  rescue  the 

lambs  of  his  flock  from  the  power  of  the  world  and  the 

wicked  one  ! 
15 


338      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

SEEKING    THE   LOST   SHEEP. 

I  WAS  once  invited  to  preach  to  the  prisoners  at  the 
Tombs  in  New  York.  They  were  not  allowed  to  leave 
their  cells,  so  I  had  to  preach  the  best  I  could  without 
seeing  my  congregation.  My  text  was,  "  For  the  Son  of 
man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 

After  I  had  got  through,  I  thought  I  would  go  around 
and  have  a  look  at  the  men  I  had  been  preaching  to ; 
so  I  went  to  the  first  cell,  and  found  the  men  in  it  play-, 
ing  cards. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  "  said  I ;  "  how  happen 
you  to  be  here  ?  " 

"  O,  we  are  here  because  somebody  swore  falsely 
about  us;  we  are  not  guilty  of  any  thing,  and  just  as 
quick  as  we  can  come  to  our  trial  we  shall  be  able  to  es- 
tablish our  innocence." 

Well,  thought  I  to  myself,  these  men  are  not  lost. 

So  I  went  to  the  next  cell,  and  asked  the  men  how 
they  came  to  be  in  prison. 

"  We  got  into  bad  company ;  it  was  the  other  fellows 
who  did  the  crime,  but  we  were  caught  and  held  for  it." 

The  next  man,  I  found,  was  not  the  man  they  were 
looking  for  at  all ;  he  only  very  much  resembled  the  man 
who  did  commit  the  crime,  but  lie  wasn't  guilty  of  any 
thing.  They  were  there — so  many  of  them — altogether 
by  mistake.  And  so  I  went  on  from  one  Cell  to  another, 
but  nobody  was  ready  to  confess  himself  a  sinner,  no- 
body was  lost.  I  never  saw  so  many  innocent  men  in 
jail  in  all  my  life. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      339 

Hut  after  awhile  I  found  a  poor  fellow  with  his  face 
buried  in  his  hands,  and  there  were  two  little  streams  of 
tears  running  out  between  his  fingers. 

"What  is  the  matter?"  said  I. 

"  O,  sir,  I  am  such  a  sinner ;  I  feel  as  if  I  was  lost ! " 

"  You  are  just  the  man  I  have  been  looking  for," 
said  I. 

"  What !  you  looking  for  me  ?  " 

"Yes.  I  have  a  message  for  you  from  the  Lord.  He 
has  come  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  and  now  you  say 
that  you  are  lost,  so  you  are  just  the  man  my  Lord  wants 
to  save." 

We  knelt  down  and  prayed  together  on  the  stone 
floor,  he  on  one  side  of  the  iron  grating,  and  I  on  the 
other ;  and  I  left  him  with  the  promise  that  I  would 
pray  for  him  that  night  after  I  went  home  to  my  hotel, 
which  would  be  about  ten  o'clock,  and  he  promised  to 
meet  me  at  the  throne  of  grace  at  that  hour. 

I  felt  so  much  interested  in  his  case  that,  after  praying 
for  him  that  night  as  I  had  promised,  I  went  down  to  see 
him  next  day ;  and  when  I  got  there  I  found  his  face 
shining  with  joy. 

"  I  declare,"  said  he,  "  I  think  I  am  the  happiest  man 
in  New  York." 

He  was  lost,  and  was  willing  to  confess  it,  and  so  the 
Lord  had  sought  him  out  and  saved  him. 

What  a  sweet  text  this  is.  It  is  a  short  text,  but  it  is 
long  enough  to  save  any  sinner  who  will  believe  it. 

Some  people  tell  me  that  they  are  seeking  for  Christ 
and  cannot  find  him.  That  must  be  a  mistake.  Let 
them  reverse  their  statement ;  Christ  is  seeking  for  them, 


340      Moody  :  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

but,  somehow  or  other,  they  manage  to  keep  out  of  his 
way. 

When  Adam  had  sinned  the  very  first  thing  he  ought 
to  have  done  was  to  seek  God,  and  pray  to  be  forgiven  ; 
but  instead  of  that  he  hid  himself  among  the  trees  of 
the  garden,  and  God  was  obliged  to  go  and  seek  for  him. 

Take  that  parable  of  the  man  who  had  a  hundred 
sheep,  and  one  of  them  went  astray. 

In  that  country  they  say  the  shepherd  used  to  stand  at 
the  door  of  the  fold,  and  hold  a  rod  out  for  the  sheep 
to  pass  under,  one  at  a  time.  By  that  means  he  counted 
them  correctly. 

Well,  this  man  stands  there  to  count  his  sheep  as  they 
come  in,  but  he  finds  that  one  of  them  is  missing.  There 
are  only  ninety-nine  ;  then  he  counts  them  all  over  again 
to  be  sure,  and  when  he  finds  that  there  certainly  is  one 
lost,  he  goes  out  into  the  mountain  to  seek  after  it. 

Mind,  the  sheep  isn't  seeking  the  shepherd,  but  the 
shepherd  is  seeking  the  sheep. 

The  same  lesson  is  taught  in  the  parable  of  the  woman 
who  had  the  ten  pieces  of  silver,  and  lost  one. 

She  had  sold  some  butter,  or  something  else,  that  day, 
and  put  the  money  in  her  pocket,  instead  of  laying  it 
away  safely.  When  she  gets  ready  to  go  to  bed,  she 
takes  it  all  out  to  count  it. 

"  Why,  I  certainly  had  ten  pieces,"  she  says,  "and  here 
are  only  nine."  So  sh'e  lights  a  candle,  and  sweeps  the 
house,  and  searches  for  it  until  she  finds  the  lost  piece. 

Now  it  is  not  the  lost  piece  of  money  that  is  trying  to 
get  back  to  the  woman,  but  the  woman  who  is  trying  to 
get  back  the  lost  piece  of  money. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      341 

So  it  is  not  sinners  who  arc  seeking  Christ,  but  Christ 
who  is  seeking  sinners. 

There  are  some  people  who  say  they  expect  to  be 
Christians  in  God's  own  good  time.  A  man  was  saying 
to  me  the  other  day  that  the  Gospel  didn't  hit  him  any 
where,  and  he  was  waiting  until  it  did. 

"What  are  you  waiting  for?"  said  I;  "God  has  sent 
his  prophets,  and  the  world  has  killed  them;  God  has 
sunt  his  Son,  and  they  have  crucified  him  ;  he  has  sent 
his  Holy  Spirit,  and  they  reject  him  ;  now,  what  more  is 
there  that  even  God  can  do  toward  saving  sinners  than 
he  has  already  done  ?" 

Christ  is  all  the  time  seeking  the  lost ;  he  seeks  them 
by  means  of  all  the  gospel  sermons  that  are  preached  ; 
by  all  the  tracts  that  are  distributed;  by  all  the  Bibles 
that  are  printed  ;  by  all  your  churches  and  Sunday- 
schools  ;  by  the  Tabernacle  here  in  Chicago,  and  by 
every  similar  structure  that  good  men  have  built  for  the 
use  of  these  gospel  meetings  every-where. 

This  Tabernacle  in  which  we  are  assembled  to-night 
ought  to  be,  like  Noah's  ark,  a  warning  to  the  people  of 
this  city  that  God  is  seeking  them,  and  that  it  is  time 
for  them  to  begin  to  seek  God. 

What  pains  people  take  to  find  their  money  if  they 
lose  it. 

How  those  poor  invalids  go  on  long  journeys  to  find 
some  doctor  who  is  said  to  have  great  skill,  in  the  hope 
that  perhaps  they  may  regain  their  lost  health. 

Suppose  it  is  reputation  that  is  lost,  how  the  man 
struggle's  to  regain  it  ;  suppose  it  were  sight  that  was 
lost,  would  it  not  be  worthy  of  all  the  pains   you  could    , 


342      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

possibly  take  to  get  back  your  sight  again?  But  what  is 
money,  or  reputation,  or  sight,  or  even  life  itself,  when 
compared  with  loss  of  the  immortal  soul  ? 

Christ  is  all  the  time  seeking  us  and  sending  out  invi- 
tations to  us.  He  says,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

Then,  again,  he  says,  "  Him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will 
in  no  wise  cast  out." 

If  you  are  an  anxious,  sinner,  Christ  is  more  anxious 
to  save  you  than  you  are  to  be  saved. 

If  you  are  seeking  Christ,  and  Christ  is  seeking  you,  it 
will  not  take  long  for  the  anxious  sinner  and  the  anxious 
Saviour  to  meet. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  Son  of  God  seeks 
for  your  souls,  and  that  is  through  the  Holy  Spirit  which 
he  sent  into  this  world.  Undoubtedly  many  of  you  that 
have  been  here  have  said,  "Well,  there  is  a  strange  at- 
mosphere here."  I  was  talking  to  a  man  in  the  inquiry 
room,  and  he  said  that  he  couldn't  help  noticing  the 
difference  between  the  atmosphere  of  these  meetings  and 
of  the  drinking  saloons  which  he  had  frequented. 

What  is  the  difference?  It  is  the  Spirit  of  God.  It 
is  that  very  Spirit  that  is  down  here  seeking  to  win  you 
to  that  blessed  Saviour.  He  was  sent  into  this  world  for 
that  purpose. 

Not  only  does  the  Lord  seek  us  himself,  but  he  sends 
other  people  to  seek  us.  How  many  Christian  parents 
are  joining  with  the  Lord  in  trying  to  save  their  lost 
sons  and  daughters? 

In  one  of  our  Chicago  meetings  a  few  years  ago  a 
young  man  got  up  and  asked  to  speak,  and  with  tears 


Outlines  ok  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      343 

trickling  down  his  cheeks  told  the  young  men  to  come 
to  Christ,  and  reminded  them  that  they  would  not  always 
have  fathers  and  mothers  to  pray  for  them. 

He  said,  "  I  once  had  a  praying  father  and  mother ;  I 
was  their  only  son;  but  at  last  my  father  died,  and  my 
mother  grew  more  anxious  than  ever  about  me.     Some 
nights    I    would   wake   up   and    hear    her    crying   in   her 
chamber,  '  O,  God,  save  my  boy!    O,  God,  convert  my 
son  ! '  and  sometimes  I  would  go  into  my  mother's  room 
in  the  day  time  unexpectedly  and  find  her  praying  for 
me.     She  would  put  her  arms  about  my  neck  and  say, 
'  If  you  were  only  a  Christian  I  should  be  so  happy  ; '  and 
I  would  push  her  away  and  tell  her  that  after  I  had  seen 
more  of  the  world  I  would  settle  down  and  be  a  Chris- 
tian.    At  last  her  prayers  made  my  home  so  hot  for  me 
that  I  fled  away  without  telling  her  where  I  was  going. 
I  was  gone  a  long  time  before  I   heard  from  home,  and 
when  I  did  hear  I  heard  she  was  sick,  and  I  knew  that 
it  was  my  conduct   that  was   killing  her.     I  thought  I 
would   go  home    and    ask    her  forgiveness,   but   then    I 
thought  if  I  did  I  would  have  to  be  a  Christian.     I  could 
not  live  in  the'  house  without  yielding  to  her  prayers, 
and  so  my  stubborn  heart  refused.      The   next   time  I 
heard  that  she  was  worse,  and  I  thought  I  should  never 
forgive  myself,  and  that  I  should  be  my  mother's  mur- 
derer if  I  did  not  go  home.     So- 1  started  for  home  in  a 
coach — there   was  no   railroad — and   reached   my  native 
village  about  dark,  and  the  moon  had  just  commenced 
to  shine.     In  passing  the  grave-yard  I  got  over  the  fence 
to  see  if  there  were  a  new-made  grave  there;  and  I  don't 
know  why,  but  as  I  drew  near  the  spot   my  heart  began 


f 
344     Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

to  beat  quick,  and  when  I  got  there  I  saw  by  the  light 
of  the  moon  a  new-made  grave.  Then  for  the  first  time 
in  my  life  I  thought,  '  Who  is  going  to  pray  for  my 
lost  soul,  now  father  and  mother  are  dead  ?  They  are 
the  only  two  who  cared  for  my  soul;  their  prayers  are 
over;  who  is  going  to  pray  for  me  now?'  By  my  moth- 
er's grave  I  cried  to  my  mother's  God  all  night,  and 
when  the  morning  came  God  had  forgiven  my  sins." 
He  said  if  he  could  call  back  that  mother  and  ask  her 
forgiveness  he  would  give  all  he  had  in  the  world. 

Perhaps  I  am  speaking  to  some  one  who  has  wandered 
away  from  a  mother's  love,  or  trampled  a  sainted  moth- 
er's prayers  under  his  feet.  O,  come  back,  come  home ! 
God  sent  his  Son  after  you  ;  he  stooped  from  heaven 
and  clear  down  to  the  manger,  and  even  to  the  cross  of 
Calvary :  he  wrestled  with  the  powers  of  darkness  that 
he  might  restore  your  soul  and  mine. 

O,  may  the  Spirit  of  God  fall  upon  this  assembly  to- 
night, and  may  the  lost  be  found  and  the  wanderers  come 
home ! 

CHRIST  THE  RESTORER. 
THE  third  verse  of  the  twenty-third  psalm  begins,  "  He 
restoreth  my  soul."  I  love  to  think  of  Christ  as  a  Re- 
storer. There  are  a  good  many  of  you  who  have  strayed 
away  from  the  fold,  who  want  to  come  back  and  be  re- 
stored to  your  first  love;  and  this  is  just  what  the  Lord 
wants  to  do  f©r  you.  If  you  are  full  of  the  joy  of  the 
Lord  you  will  be  full  of  power.  Just  pray  to-day  that 
the  Lord  will  now  restore  your  soul ;  pray,  as  David  did, 
"  Restore  unto  me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation;  and  uphold 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.       345 

me  with  thy  free  spirit.  Then  will  I  teach  transgressors 
thy  way  ;  and  sinners  shall  be  converted  unto  thee." 
David  got  as  far  away  from  the  Lord  as  any  sinner  in 
Chicago,  but  the  Lord  restored  him. 

It  seems  to  me  that  every  day  I  find  Christians  more 
troubled  about  their  coldness  and  distance  from  God. 
Now,  at  the  close  of  the  services,  there  are  more  than 
there  were  at  the  beginning.  This  psalm  is  for  them  ; 
let  them  remember  that  the  Lord  is  able  and  willing  to 
be  a  restorer  unto  them. 

At  the  young  converts'  meeting  last  night,  some  of 
them  were  speaking  of  their  trials  and  battles.  The  Lord 
had  given  them  new  hearts,  but  the  flesh  was  rising  up 
to  trouble  them.  Now  Paul  tells  us  what  is  to  be  done 
in  such  cases :  "  Likewise  reckon  ye  also  yourselves  to  be 
dead  indeed  unto  sin."  It  does  not  saj  the  old  Adam- 
nature  is  actually  dead.  You  don't  "  reckon"  the  people 
in  Graceland  dead  ;  they  are  dead,  and  there  is  no  reckon- 
ing about  it.  The  thing  to  do  is  to  treat  the  old  nature 
as  if  it  were  dead  ;  keep  it  down  ;  keep  it  under ;  and 
God  will  give  the  new  nature  power  to  overcome  and 
destroy  it.  ■ 

Another  class  of  persons  to  whom   I  want  to  speak  a 

word  are  those  who  have  once  professed  to  be  followers 

of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  have  left  him  and  gone 

back  to  the  world.     I  want  to  ask  the  backslider,  "  Are 

you  happy?      If  you  are,  you  are  the  first  backslider  I 

ever  heard  of  who  was  happy.     I   never  knew  a  man  or 

woman  who  ever  found  Christ  and  left  him  who  had  any 

peace  of  mind.     The  world  never  can  fill  the  void  that 

has  been  made  by  the  loss  of  Christ.     There  is  no  altar 
15* 


346      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

in  your  home  now.  Perhaps  there  was  a  time  when  you 
used  to  pray;  and  perhaps  now  your  children  ask  you, 
'  What  has  God  done  that  you  don't  pray  to  him  any 
more?"  Why  is  it  that  you  have  left  him?  It. may  be 
that  you  have  trouble  at  home,  that  your  husband  per- 
secutes you,  or  that  your  children  make  light  of  your 
prayer,  but  is  that  any  reason  why  the  altar  should  come 
down?  Ought  not  this  to  drive  you  nearer  to  Christ, 
and  make  you  more  Christlike?  What  has  Christ  done 
to  you  that  you  should  have  left  him  ? 

What  Christ  wants  is  to  have  you  come  back  to-day. 
I  wish  I  could  say  something  that  would  bring  back 
every  backslider,  and  have  all  of  them  flocking  into  the 
fold. 

I  remember  of  hearing  about  a  young  man  who  went 
to  California  and  became  very  reckless  and  wicked,  and 
his  father,  hearing  of  his  life  of  dissipation  and  sin,  used 
to  write  letters  to  him  ;  but  the  boy  didn't  care  much 
for  his  father's  letters.  A  neighbor  was  going  out  there, 
and  the  father  said,  "  I  want  you  to  find  out  my  boy, 
and  tell  him  that  his  father  loves  him  as  much  as  ever, 
and  if  he  will  only  come  home  I  will  forgive  him  freely; 
that  my  heart  is  as  true  to  him  as  ever."  When  the 
neighbor  got  to  California  he  hunted  for  the  boy,  and 
one  night  he  found  him  in  a  gambling  den.  As  soon  as 
he  could  get  him  away  from  the  rest  of  the  gang  he  told 
him  about  the  message  his  father  had  sent. 

The  great  tears  trickled  down  the  boy's  face,  and  he 
said,  "Did  my  father  say  he  loves  me  still?" 

So  I  say  to  backsliders,  God  loves  you  still. 

The  most  tender  and  loving  words  that  were  ever 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      347 

uttered  by  the  Lord  were  said  to  backsliding  Israel.  He 
gave  them  warning,  that  they  might  repent  of  their  sins 
and  be  saved  that  seventy  years  of  captivity ;  but  they 
would  not  listen  to  the  word,  and  at  last  judgment  came. 
God  will  win  you  back  in  love  if  he  can,  but  if  that  will 
not  do,  the  rod  will  come.  So  he  saved  Lot  out  of 
Sodom,  but  he  had  to  burn  Sodom  in  order  to  do  it. 

I  have  yet  to  find  the  man  or  woman  who  ever  left  the 
Lord  that  could  give  a  good  reason  for  it.  They  have 
talked  about  the  unfaithful  ones  in  the  Church,  but  the 
faults  of  others  should  not  make  them  leave  the  Lord. 

You  may  want  to  know  how  you  can  get  out  of  your 
present  position.  There  is  one  peculiar  way  out  of  the 
backslider's  ditch,  and  that  is  the  same  way  you  went 
into  it.  The  Lord  did  not  leave  you  ;  you  left  him — 
turned  your  back  on  him. 

If  you  treat  Christ  as  a  real  personal  friend,  you  will 
never  go  away  from  him.  If  I  were  going  to  leave 
Boston  I  would  shake  hands  with  my  friends,  and  say, 
"  Good-bye."  But  did  you  ever  hear  of  a  backslider 
going  into  his  closet,  and  saying,  "  Lord,  I  have  served 
you  so  long,  now  I  am  tired  of  your  service,  and  am 
going  back  into  the  world;  so  good-bye  ?  "  Who  ever 
heard  of  any  one  leaving  Christ  in  that  way?  You  left 
him  without  saying  good-bye;  but  he  will  have  mercy  on 
you  if  you  come  back  to  him.  May  God  bring  home  the 
wanderers!  May  they  hear  the  voice  of  the  Shepherd 
to-day,  in  the  dark  mountains,  calling  them  home  ! 

If  there  was  a  child  lost  in  Boston,  and  you  could  find 
it  to-night,  how  you  would  hunt  for  it !  You  would  be 
willing  to  sit  up  all  night  to  find  that  child.     Supposing 


34S     Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

it  was  known  that  Charlie  Ross  was  hid  somewhere  in 
this  city,  how  many  in  this  audience  would  volunteer  to 
go  out  and  ransack  the  whole  city  to  find  him  !  How 
this  whole  nation  has  been  roused  over  the  loss  of  that 
little  boy  !  But,  my  friends,  only  think  of  the  lost  souls 
that  are  walking  up  and  down  the  streets  of  Boston  ! 
Think  of  them  in  these  billiard  halls  and  drinking  sa- 
loons ;  young  men  that  are  noble,  that  might  make  jewels 
in  the  Saviour's  crown  which  should  sparkle  through  eter- 
nity :  and  they  are  perishing  for  the  want  of  Christ ; 
they  are  lost  and  don't  know  it ;  they  are  blindfolded  ; 
and  Satan  is  dragging  them  down  to  hell ! 

The  fifth  verse  closes  with  these  words,  "  My  cup 
runneth  over." 

A  Christian  is  not  of  much  use  until  he  is  full,  and 
running  over,  with  religion.  God's  people  try  to  do  his 
work  on  too  small  capital,  and  that  accounts  for  the 
many  failures  we  see.  What  you  want  is  to  be  so  full 
of  Christ  that  you  will  have  something  over  to  use  in 
helping  your  neighbors.  Let  the  cup  be  so  full  that  it 
will  run  over. 

The  sixth  verse  reads,  "  Surely  goodness  and  mercy 
shall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my  life." 

An  Englishman  once  said  to  me,  "  The  Lord  has  no 
poor  children.  If  you  see  a  man  always  walking  you 
think  he  is  poor;  if  he  sometimes  takes  a  Hansom  cab 
you  think  he  is  a  little  better  off;  if  he  has  his  own 
turnout  you  call  him  rich  ;  if  he  has  a  footman  up 
behind  he  must  have  a  large  fortune;  and  if  he  has 
two  footmen  you  say  he  must  have  a  large  inheritance 
to   support    such   expense.      Now  the   children  of  God 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      349 

have  two  footmen — Goodness  and  Mercy — and  the  psalm 
says  they  shall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my  life.  Sure- 
ly the  child  of  God  must  have  a  great  inheritance  to  be 
able  to  have  such  a  following." 

I  bring  you  a  loving  message  to-day.  lie  will  forgive 
you  if  you  will  return  to  him,  even  as  if  you  never  had 
wandered. 

I  went  to  a  physician  the  other  day  to  tell  him  that  a 
niece  of  mine,  whom  he  had  cured,  as  we  supposed,  had 
suffered  a  relapse.  "  Well,"  says  the  doctor, "just  increase 
the  remedy."  That  is  just  what  the  relapsed  believer 
must  do — get  more  of  Christ. 

Rev.  Mr.  Brown,  an  evangelist  from  Wisconsin,  in  one  of  the 
Chicago  meetings  related  the  following  incident : — 

•'  I  have  a  friend  who  used  to  live  in  Syria,  and  he 
became  very  well  acquainted  with  the  shepherds  of  that 
country.  One  day  as  he  was  riding  among  the  mount- 
ains he  came  to  a  spring  of  water,  and  stopped  to 
rest  awhile.  Presently,  down  one  of  the  steep  mountain 
paths  a  shepherd  came,  leading  his  flock  of  sheep.  Not 
long  after  another  shepherd  with  another  flock  came 
down  to  the  water  by  another  path,  and  after  awhile  a 
third.  The  three  flocks  mingled  together,  so  that  he 
began  to  wonder  how  each  shepherd  was  ever  going  to 
find  his  own  sheep  again. 

"  At  last  one  of  them  rose  up  and  called  out, '  Men-ah  ! ' 
which  in  Arabic  means  '  follow; '  and  his  sheep  came  out 
from  the  great  flock,  and  followed  him  back  into  the 
mountains.  He  did  not  even  stop  to  count  them.  Then 
shepherd    No.    2   got    up   and   called    out    to   his   sheep. 


350      Moody :  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

Men-ah ! '  and  those  of  his  flock  left  the  others  and  fol- 
lowed him  away. 

"  My  friend  could  speak  Arabic  very  well ;  so  one  day 
he  said  to  a  shepherd,  '  I  think  I  could  make  your  sheep 
follow  me.' 

"  '  I  think  not,'  said  the  shepherd. 

"'Give  me  your  turban,  and  your  cloak,  and  your 
crook,'  said  my  friend, '  and  we'll  see.' 

"  So  he  put  on  the  shepherd's  turban  and  his  cloak, 
and  took  the  crook  in  his  hand,  and  stood  up  where  the 
sheep  could  see  him,  and  called  out,  'Men-ah!  men-ah!' 
but  not  a  sheep  would  take  any  notice  of  him. 

"  '  They  know  not  the  voice  of  strangers.' 

"  My  friend  asked  the  shepherd  if  the  sheep  never  fol- 
lowed any  body  but  him. 

"'0  yes;  sometimes  a  sheep  gets  sick,  and  then  it 
will  follow  a  stranger.' 

"Just  so  with  us  Christians  ;  we  get  sick  and  backslid- 
den, and  then  we  follow  the  devil." 


PLENTY  AND   SAFETY  WITH   CHRIST. 
It  is  an  old  saying,  "  The  sheep  that  keeps  nearest  the 
shepherd  gets  the  most  salt." 

One  summer  I  went  up  on  to  the  mountain  with  my 
brother,  who  was  going  to  salt  his  sheep  ;  and  I  noticed 
one  sheep  which  came  right  up  to  him,  and  stood  by 
him,  and  got  all  the  salt  it  wanted  ;  then  it  put  its  nose 
into  his  pocket  and  got  an  apple  ;  but  all  the  other 
sheep  seemed  a  little  afraid  of  him.  I  asked  him  how 
it  was,  and  he  said,  "That  sheep  has  been  brought  up 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.       351 

a  cosset,  and  isn't  a  bit  afraid  of  mc."  So  it  is  with 
those  Christians  who  keep  close  to  Christ ;  they  are  like 
the  sheep  that  gets  the  most  salt  ;  but  a  good  many 
Christians  seem  a  little  afraid  of  the  Shepherd  ;  and 
because  they  are  afraid  and  keep  away  from  him  they 
never  get  much  salt. 

Christ  says,  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  John,  "  I  am  the 
door#of  the  sheep."  If  you  go  into  Farwell  Hall  you 
must  go  in  through  the  door;  if  you  go  into  the  kingdom 
of  God  you  must  go  in  through  Jesus  Christ.  In  another 
verse  he  says  of  his  sheep,  "  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life  ; 
and  they  shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any  man  pluck 
them  out  of  my  hand."  This  word  "  man  "  is  in  italics, 
and  if  we  leave  it  out,  the  text  will  be :  "  neither  shall 
any  " — neither  men  nor  devils — "  pluck  them  out  of  my 
hand." 

"  I  "  will  do  this  ;  "  I  "  will  do  that.  Twenty-eight 
times  in  this  chapter  does  Christ  use  that  pronoun  to 
declare  what  he  is,  and  what  he  will  do  for  those  who 
believe  on  him.  Surely  that  is  enough  to  show  his  claim 
as  a  Divine  person  and  his  Divine  mission  among  men. 


FEEDING  THE  MULTITUDE— THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE. 
The  lesson  for  to-day  is  the  sixth  chapter  of  John.  We 
might  write  over  this  chapter,  "  Bread  ;  bread  for  the 
hungry;  bread  from  heaven.''  All  the  evangelists  give 
an  account  of  this  miracle  of  Christ  feeding  the  multi- 
tude with  those  five  loaves  and  a  few  small  fishes ;  but 
John  brings  out  the  idea  more  fully  than  the  others,  that 
Christ  is  himself  the  bread  of  life  from  heaven. 


352       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Here  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  verses  Christ  is  trying 
Philip's  faith  by  asking  him,  "  Whence  shall  we  buy 
bread,  that  these  may  eat  ?  "  Philip,  answering,  says, 
"Two  hundred  pennyworth  of  bread  is  not  sufficient  for 
them,  that  every  one  of  them  may  take  a  little."  I 
suppose  he  mentioned  that  sum  because  that  was  the 
extent  of  the  money  in  their  little  treasury — only  about 
thirty  dollars.  But  Christ  took  the  "  five  barley  loaves, 
and  two  small  fishes,"  which  a  lad  had  brought  for  his 
lunch,  and  when  he  had  given  thanks  he  distributed 
to  the  disciples,  and  the  disciples  fed  the  multitude 
with  them.  Then,  when  all  had  eaten  enough,  and 
twelve  baskets  full  of  the  fragments  had  been  taken  up, 
Christ  tries  to  get  their  minds  off  from  the  bread  that 
perisheth,  and  to  set  them  to  thinking  of  the  bread 
of  life. 

In  one  part  of  this  chapter  the  people  are  trying  to 
make  him  king,  in  another  they  are  trying  to  kill  him. 
They  were  ready  enough  to  follow  him  as  long  as  he  fed 
them,  but  when  he  began  to  spiritualize  the  miracle,  and 
ask  them  to  believe  on  him  as  the  Son  of  God  and  Sav- 
iour of  the  world,  a  great  many  went  back,  and  fol- 
lowed him  no  more.  It  was  just  as  it  used  to  be  when 
I  had  a  Sunday-school  over  here  on  the  north  side. 
Just  advertise  a  picnic  or  a  festival,  where  there  was 
going  to  be  something  to  eat,  and  the  school  would  be 
out  in  full  force.  We  would  find  people  then  who  had 
hardly  been  inside  the  church  for  a  whole  year. 

Now  Christ  accuses  these  people  of  just  this  very 
thing,  "  Ye  seek  me,  because  ye  did  eat  of  the  loaves ;  " 
and  that  is  just  the  way  with  a  great  many  people,  who 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.       353 

are  standing  round  on  the  edges  of  the  Church,  and  say- 
ing to  themselves,  "  Can't  we  make  something  out  of  this 
thing  ?  " 

They  said  unto  him,  "What  shall  \vc  do,  that  we  might 
work  the  works  of  God?"  Perhaps  some  of  them  had 
big  families,  and  wanted  to  know  how  to  make  a  small 
amount  of  provisions  go  a  good  ways.  Jesus  answered, 
"  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom 
he  hath  sent."  There  it  is  again,  that  little  word  "  be- 
lieve." You  can't  go  far  in  this  Gospel  of  John  without 
running  on  to  that  word  "believe." 

The  people  replied,  "  Moses  gave  our  fathers  manna 
to  eat  in  the  desert." 

"  No,"  says  Christ,  "  Moses  didn't  do  any  such  thing ; 
it  was  my  Father  who  gave  you  that  bread,  and  now  he 
gives  you  his  Son,  who  is  the  true  bread  of  life.  Verily 
I  say  unto  you,  He  that  believeth  on  me  hath  everlasting 
life.  Your  fathers  did  eat  manna  in  the  wilderness,  and 
are  dead.  I  am  the  living  bread  which  came  down  from 
heaven  :  if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  for- 
ever:  and  the  bread  that  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I 
will  give  for  the  life  of  the  world." 

I  can  see  Jesus  as  he  takes  the  bread  and  blesses  it.  and 
gives  it  to  the  disciples  to  give  to  the  multitude.  Here 
is  Andrew  with  a  piece  of  the  loaf  in  his  hand,  beginning 
to  distribute  it  among  the  crowd.  I  seem  to  see  him 
breaking  off  a  small  piece  for  the  first  man,  for  fear  the 
bread  wont  hold  out,  but  when  he  sees  that  the  loaf  isn't 
any  smaller  for  what  he  has  broken  off  he  goes  to  the 
next  man  and  gives  him  a  larger  piece  ;  still  there  is 
no  loss  of  bread.      Then  he  <>ives  the  third  a  <iood  irener- 


354      Moody :  ms  Words — Work — Workers. 

ous  portion,  and  when  he  finds  that  the  bread  doesn't 
grow  any  smaller  he  goes  on  breaking  off  great  pieces, 
and  giving  to  every  one  as  much  as  he  likes. 

A  man  in  the  inquiry  room  last  night  said,  "  Do  you 
believe  that  is  literal?" 

"  Yes,"  I  said  ;  "  it  is  literal  in  this  sense  :  our  minds 
are  to  feed  upon  the  real,  personal  Christ,  and  not  upon 
creeds  and  dogmas,  and  dry  notions  of  theology."  Pretty 
dry  feeding,  that;  but  I  have  known  people  who  were 
feeding  themselves  upon  something  drier  yet.  They 
were  trying  to  live  off  the  failings  of  their  nciglibors.  I 
tell  you,  my  friends,  you'll  get  terribly  lean  if  you  try  to 
live  on  such  dry  fodder  as  that. 

Then  there  is  another  thought.  Plenty  of  people 
never  learn  to  feed  themselves.  Parents  take  great  care 
to  teach  their  little  children  to  do  this.  You  may  hear 
the  mother  saying,  "  Do  just  look  at  the  baby,  he  is  be- 
ginning to  feed  himself  with  a  spoon."  But  how  many 
people  there  are  in  the  Church  who  never  learn  to  feed 
themselves.  They  go  around  to  get  one  minister  after 
another  to  feed  them,  instead  of  coming  to  Christ  and 
taking  the  bread  of  life  for  themselves. 

I  have  heard  of  artificial  bees  with  springs  in  them, 
so  that  they  moved  about,  and  you  could  hardly  tell 
them  from  the  real  live  bees  when  they  were  put  down 
among  them.  The  maker  puzzled  a  good  many  people 
with  them,  till  at  last  somebody  found  out  how  to  ex- 
pose the  trick.  He  just  put  down  a  little  honey  among 
them,  and  all  the  live  bees  went  for  it  right  away.  So  it 
is  in  the  Church,  those  who  have  the  true  life  in  them 
have  good  sharp  appetites  for  the  bread  of  life. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.       355 

You  remember  that  when  the  children  of  Israel  came 
out  of  Egypt  some  of  them  got  tired  of  manna,  and  were 
almost  ready  to  go  back  into  captivity  again  for  the  sake 
of  getting  some  of  the  Egyptian  onions,  leeks,  and  gar- 
lic. Now  that  is  just  the  way  with  backsliders  nowa- 
days. They  leave  the  Church,  and  the  prayer-meeting, 
and  the  family  altar,  and  try  to  satisfy  themselves  with 
theaters  and  operas,  and  other  worldly  amusements ; 
and  they  are  famished  half  to  death  because  they  don't 
feed  on  this  heavenly  loaf.  You  can  always  tell  a  minis- 
ter who  feeds  his  people  with  the  bread  of  life  by  the 
crowd  of  hungry  souls  that  always  flock  to  hear  him. 

One  more  verse :  "  Whoso  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drink- 
eth  my  blood,  hath  eternal  life  ;  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at 
the  last  day."  I  remember  once  going  to  a  grave-yard 
in  England,  and  over  the  gate-way  were  these  words  : 
"THEY  SHALL  RISE  AGAIN."  Thanks  be  to  God!  this 
Christ,  who  is  the  bread  of  life  to  us  in  this  world,  is  our 
pledge  of  resurrection  from  the  dead  and  our  eternal  life 
in  the  world  to  come. 


THE   WATER   OF   LIFE. 

Yesterday  our  subject  was  "The  Bread  of  Life,"  to-day 
it  is  "The  Water  of  Life."  I  will  begin  at  the  thirty- 
seventh  verse  of  this  seventh  chapter  of  John  :  "In  the 
last  day,  that  great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood  and 
cried,  saying,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me, 
and  drink." 

It  seems  that  Jesus  went  up  to  this  feast  alone,  and 
after  he  had  finished  his  teachings  he  went  away  to  the 


356      Moody:  his  Words— Works— Workers. 

Mount  of  Olives.  It  is  said  that  he  couldn't  walk  in 
Judea  any  more,  because  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  were 
looking  for  a  chance  to  kill  him. 

He  had  committed  the  sin,  in  their  eyes,  of  healing  a 
sick  man  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  sending  him  away 
with  his  bed  on  his  back.  This  shocked  their  piety  dread- 
fully. You  see,  my  friends,  that  people  may  b©very  re- 
ligious, and  at  the  same  time  their  hearts  may  be  full  of 
hatred  and  murder.  These  Scribes  and  Pharisees  were 
full  of  religion  of  their  own  particular  sort,  and  yet  they 
were  all  the  while  trying  to  kill  the  Son  of  God. 

There  was  another  thing  that  seemed  to  have  lain 
heavy  upon  the  heart  of  Jesus,  and  that  was  the  fact  that 
his  own  brethren  didn't  believe  on  him. 

Then,  again,  some  people  had  accused  him  of  being 
possessed  of  the  devil,  and  for  all  these  reasons  Jesus 
was  sorrowful,  and  wanted  to  be  alone  ;  so  he  sent  his 
disciples  on  before  him  to  the  feast. 

The  next  day,  after  stopping  over  night  at  the  house 
of  his  friend  Lazarus,  he  came  into  the  city,  which  was 
greatly  excited  concerning  him.  People  were  talking 
about  him  in  little  groups  on  the  street  corners,  just  as 
they  are  now  on  the  street  corners  of  Chicago  talking 
about  the  election.  Some  people  believed  on  him  and 
others  denounced  him,  so  that  the  whole  city  was  di- 
vided into  two  parties  on  his  account. 

It  was  on  the  last  great  day  of  the  feast  that"  Jesus 
spoke  the  words  I  have  read — "  If  any  man  thirst,  let 
him  come  unto  me,  and  drink." 

I  have  been  very  much  interested  this  morning  in  run- 
ning through  my  Bible  to  find  this  expression  so  many 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      357 

times  repeated  :  "  If  any  man,"  etc.  "  If  any  man  hear 
my  voice,  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and 
will  sup  with  him.  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him 
ask  of  God  .  .  .  and  it  shall  be  given  him."  That  is  a 
good  text  for  your  business  men  who  are  greatly  embar- 
rassed and  don't  know  how  to  make  both  ends  meet. 
God  is  rkh,  and  what  you  want  to  do  is  to  commit  your 
business  and  all  your  affairs  to  him,  and  he  will  show 
you  a  way  out  of  your  business  troubles. 

"If  any  man  serve  me,  let  him  follow  me."  A  great 
many,  people  profess  to  serve  Christ,  but  do  not  follow 
cither  his  precepts  or  example.  They  are  selfish,  worldly, 
extravagant ;  let  them  confess  their  sins,  and  come  back 
to  Christ.  "  If  any  man  be  a  worshiper  of  God,  him  he 
heareth." 

A  lady  said  to  me  in  the  inquiry  room  the  other  night : 
"  The  heavens  seem  to  be  brass  over  my  head."  The 
trouble  was,  she  hadn't  been  a  worshiper  of  God.  "If 
any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine." 
The  reason  why  men  don't  know  God's  will  is  because 
they  don't  do  it.  "  If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let 
him  den)-  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me." 
That  is  the  trouble :  they  don't  like  to  deny  them- 
selves. 

Now,  these  passages  of  Scripture  seem  to  settle  the 
question  that  God  is  not  partial.  Just  see  how  broad 
all  these  invitations  are;  they  are  universal,  and  they 
follow  us  every-where,  through  all  the  ages,  just  as  the 
stream  that  poured  out  of  the  rock  in  the  wilderness 
followed  all  the  wanderings  of  the  children  of  Israel. 
What  would  you   say  of  an  able-bodied   man  who  was 


358      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

dying  of  thirst  right  down  by  the  shore  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan ?     This  water  of  life  is  just  as  plentiful  and  free. 

Some  people  complain  bitterly  about  being  so  hungry 
and  thirsty — so  dry  and  destitute  of  life  and  feeling — and 
you  would  almost  believe,  by  the  way  they  pity  them- 
selves, that  the  fault  was  in  the  Lord,  and  that  there  was 
some  scarcity  in  the  "  bread  "  and  "  water  of  l^fe ;  "  but 
you  will  always  find  that  when  people  really  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness  it  isn't  a  great  while  before 
they  are  filled. 

There  are  two  wells  on  the  old  farm  at  Nort-hfield 
which  I  heard  my  brother  say  never  ran  dry.  One  sum- 
mer morning  I  got  up  very  early  and  went  out,  and 
after  awhile  I  felt  thirsty,  and  I  went  to  one  of  the 
pumps  to  get  some  water ;  but  there  didirt  seem  to  be 
any  water  in  the  well.  Then  I  tried  the  other  one,  and 
that  was  as  dry  as  the  first.  I  pumped,  and  worked, 
and  waited  all  in  vain  ;  there  wasn't  a  drop  of  water 
to  be  had. 

Pretty  soon  one  of  my  brothers  came  out,  and  I  said 
to  him : — 

"  I  thought  you  told  me  that  these  wells  never  ran  dry." 

"So  I  did." 

"  Well,  here  I  have  been  trying  for  ever  so  long  to  get 
a  drink  of  water,  and  I  can't  get  a  drop." 

"  O,"  said  he,  laughing,  "  I  know  what  the  matter  is 
there  is  plenty  of  water  in  the  well ;  the  trouble  is  in  the 
pump." 

So  he  went  and  got  a  pailful  of  water  and  poured  it 
into  the  old  pump,  and  after  that  there  was  plenty  of 
water  in  the  well. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Jesus  Christ.      359 

Now  that  is  just  the  way  with  some  of  you:  there  is 
plenty  of  water  in  the  well,  but  the  pump  is  dry. 

When  Israel  was  in  the  wilderness  God  rained  down 
bread  from  heaven  upon  them.  Just  so  he  rains  down 
the  bread  and  the  water  of  life  in  the  reach  of  every  soul 
in  Farwell  Hall  to-day,  and  if  any  of  you  perish  finally, 
don't  rise  up  in  the  judgment  and  say  you  were  never 
invited  to  come  to  the  gospel  feast,  for  you  have  been 
invited  here  to-day. 

HOW  TO  FIND  THE  THIRSTY  ONES. 

The  following  remarks  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gibson,  which  immediately 
followed  the  above,  were  afterward  quoted  by  Mr.  Moody,  who  said 
they  were  "the  best  thing  he  ever  heard."  After  calling  attention 
to  the  fact  that  every  body  is  thirsty  for  something,  though  they 
don't  always  just  know  what  it  is,  the  doctor  said  : — 

"We  feel  very  happy  over  the  freedom  of  these  invita- 
tions of  the  Gospel,  yet  once  in  awhile  something  comes 
up  to  discourage  us  a  little.  For  instance,  this  text  says, 
•  If  any  man  thirst.'  It  is  needful,  therefore,  that  the 
man  should  '  thirst '  before  he  can  consider  himself  invited 
to  take  of  the  'water  of  life.'  Now  I  suppose  every  body 
is  thirsty  for  something — they  don't  just  know  what  it  is 
■ — but  when  they  come  to  understand  themselves  thor- 
oughly, they  will  find  out  they  are  thirsting  for  the  living 
God.  And,  my  friends,  I  have  no  doubt  there  is  a  great- 
er number  of  people  thirsting  than  we  have  any  idea  of; 
they  don't  give  any  outward  sign  of  it,  but  they  would  be 
very  glad  to  get  a  draught  of  the  '  water  of  life.'  I  was 
talking  with  a  woman  the  other  day  about  spiritual 
things,  and  she  said  to  me,  '  I  have  a  sister  who  has  been 


360      Moody:  his  Works— Work— Workers. 

a  member  of  the  Church  for  ten  years,  and  she  never  has 
spoken  a  word  to  me  about  my  soul.  She  knows  I  am 
not  saved,  and  if  she  has  got  something  that  she  thinks  I 
ought  to  have,  why  don't  she  come  to  me  and  tell  me 
about  it?'  So  you  see  that  sister's  silence  all  those  ten 
years,  during  which  she  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Church,  was  a  great  stumbling-block  in  the  other's  way. 
"  Now  perhaps  some  of  you  are  thinking  what  a  fine 
thing  it. would  be  if  you  could  find  out  those  people  who 
are  thirsting  for  the  '  water  of  life.'  Well,  that  isn't  a 
very  hard  thing  to  do.  Suppose  you  are  in  a  railway 
car,  and  the  boy  comes  along  with  the  water-can,  you 
can  tell  all  the  thirsty  ones  right  away,— as  quick  as  the 
water  comes  within  their  reach  they  stretch  out  their 
hands  to  take  it.  And  so,  if  you  want  to  find  out  who 
there  is  about  you  that  is  thirsting  for  the  '  water  of 
life,'  just  carry  it  about  and  offer  it  to  them,  and  you 
will  be  surprised  to  see  how  many  people  will  reach  out 
their  hands  and  take  it." 

Don't  be  afraid,  my  friends,  to  drink  of  the  water  of 
life  freely.  There  is  plenty  of  it  ;  you  never  can  use  it  all. 
You  might  as  well  try  to  drink  up  the  Mississippi  River, 
or  expect  a  company  of  children  playing  on  the  sea-shore 
to  dip  out  all  the  water  of  the  Atlantic. 


LIGHT   OF   THE   WORLD. 
I  WISH  to-day  to  read  the  first  of  this  Gospel  by  John. 

The  difference  between  John's  gospel  and  the  others 
is  this:  Matthew  writes  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of 
David  ;   Mark  writes  of  him  as  a  servant  doing  the  will 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.      361 

of  his  master;  Luke  writes  of  him  as  the  Son  of  man; 
J oli n  speaks  of  him  as  the  Son  of  God.  He  does  not 
begin  with  Adam  and  give  his  genealogy,  like  Matthew  ; 
nor  speak  of  him  in  connection  with  the  patriarchs  and 
prophets,  like  Mark  ;  nor  yet  does  he  b^egin  with  Zacharias 
and  Joseph,  like  Luke  ;  but  he  sweeps  back  over  all  time, 
away  into  the  past  eternity,  and  tells  us  that  the  Word 
was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  He  brings  him  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  and  takes  him  back  to  the  glory 
which  he  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was. 

In  the  ninth  verse  John  tells  us  "he  was  the  true  light 
which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world." 
Now,  if  any  man  is  in  darkness,  it  isn't  God's  fault,  any 
more  than  it  would  be  for  a  man  to  build  himself  a 
house  without  windows. 

There  is  a  picture,  which  I  sometimes  see  hanging  in 

people's  parlors,  of  Christ  standing  and  knocking  at  the 

door   of  a   castle,  holding  a  lantern  in  his   hands.     But 

what  was  the  use  of  a  lantern  to  him  who  is  himself  the 

light  of  the  world  ?     You   might  as  well  hang  a  lantern 

to  the  sun.     I  find  a  great  many  people  who  complain 

that  they  are  in  the  dark.     The  trouble  with   them   is, 

they  do  not  believe  in  Christ.     They  do  not  come  to  the 

light,  and  yet  they  are  all  the  time   trying   to  get   the 

darkness    out    of  their   own    hearts.     If  there  were    no 

windows   in   Farwell   Hall,    nor  gaslight,   of  course   the 

place  would  be  full  of  darkness  ;  but  nobody  would  think 

of  carrying  out   the  darkness   in   buckets.     The   proper 

thing  to  do  would  be  to  knock  out   a  hole  somewhere 

and  let  in  the  sunshine.     Just  so  with  these  dark  hearts  ; 

the  way  to  light  them  up  is  to  let  Christ  in. 
16 


362      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


THE   RESURRECTION   AND   THE   LIFE. 
It  has  been  said  that  others  besides  Christ  have  raised 
dead  people  to  life.     That  is  true,  but  they  did  it  very 
differently  from  what  he  did  it. 

In  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Kings 
we  read  of  Elijah  raising  the  son  of  the  widow.  But  just 
hear  what  he  says  :  he  cried  unto  the  Lord,  "  O  Lord, 
my  God,  let  this  child's  soul  come  into  him  again." 

Then,  when  Elisha  did  the  same  thing,  we  find  that 
"  he  went  in  and  shut  the  door,  and  prayed  unto  the 
Lord." 

Now  just  notice  the  difference  between  these  accounts 
and  the  account  of  Christ  raising  Jairus's  daughter.  He 
didn't  pray  to  any  body,  but  he  just  took  her  by  the 
hand  and  said  to  her,  on  his  own  account,"  Maid,  arise!" 
and  she  that  was  dead  sat  up,  and  began  to  speak. 

Take  the  case  of  his  raising  the  widow's  son.  Death 
had  got  hold  of  his  captive,  and  was  dragging  him  off  to 
the  grave  ;  but  Christ  stopped  him,  and  commanded  him 
to  come  back.     "  Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  Arise  ! " 

And  the  young  man  arose,  and  Christ  delivered  him 
again  to  his  mother. 

He  does  not  ask  help  or  permission  of  any  body,  but 
of  his  own  authority  he  calls  back  the  dead  to  life. 

See  him  there  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus.  He  weeps,  it 
is  true,  but  he  does  not  pray.  He  just  calls  the  dead 
man,  and  Lazarus  comes  forth,  bound  hand  and  foot 
with  grave-clothes.  Even  the  dead  must  obey  when 
Christ  commands. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Jesus  Christ.       363 

Mr.  Needham  was  telling  me  about  a  picture  which  he 
saw  at  the  Crystal  Palace  at  London  of  the  raising  of 
Lazarus.  There  he  was,  coming  up  out  of  the  tomb, 
looking  more  like  a  skeleton  than  a  man,  his  bones 
sticking  out,  and  a  general  appearance  of  a  body  long 
dead. 

"  I  did  not  like  the  picture,"  says  Mr.  Needham ;  "  I 
don't  believe  he  looked  like  that  when  Christ  called  him 
out  of  the  grave.  He  was  not  raised  as  a  convalescent, 
but  in  the  full  strength  of  his  manhood,  as  any  body  can 
see  who  will  read  the  Bible  account,  for  he  was  strong 
enough  to  get  up  and  come  out  of  the  grave  in  spite  of 
the  grave-clothes  that  bound  him  hand  and  foot." 

Now  I  want  you  to  notice  that  there  were  three  things 
his  friends  had  to  do.  "  Where  have  ye  laid  him?"  said 
Christ.  He  knew  where  he  was  well  enough,  but  it  was 
something  which  they  might  do  to  show  him  the  grave 
of  their  brother.  When  they  get  to  the  grave  he  says : 
"  Take  ye  away  the  stone."  He  might  have  done  it 
himself.  He  could  have  thrown  the  stone  a  thousand 
miles  away  with  a  single  word,  but  this  was  something 
which  they  could  do  for  themselves.  Then,  after  he 
has  raised  him,  He  tells  them  to  "  loose  him,  and  let 
him  go."  It  seems  to  me  that  is  what  a  good  many  of 
these  Christians  want  right  here  in  Chicago.  They  have 
been  resurrected  ;  they  are  out  of  their  graves  ;  the  new 
life  is  in  them ;  but  they  arc  still  bound  hand  and  foot 
with  the  grave-clothes  of  their  old  nature.  The)'  can't 
speak  for  Christ  or  work  for  Christ.  Let  us  pray  that 
these,  whom  the  Lord  has  raised  from  the  dead,  may  no 
longer  go  about   in  their  grave-clothes.     Get  them  off, 


364      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  then  you  will  be  of  some  use  to  the  Master  who  has 
raised  you. 

And  what  encouragement  there  is  for  us,  my  friends, 
in  this  chapter  !  If  Christ  could  raise  the  dead  brother 
of  Martha  and  Mary,  can  he  not  raise  the  dead  souls  of 
our  friends  for  whom  we  pray  ? 

And  now  we  come  to  the  sad  thought  that  in  spite  of 
this  great  miracle,  which  was  wrought  within  two  miles 
of  Jerusalem,  the  chief  priests  and  the  Pharisees,  when 
they  heard  of  it,  called  a  council  to  see  how  they  might 
put  him  to  death.  O  what  enmity  there  is  in  the  sin- 
ner's heart  against  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  What  a  sad 
thought  that  this  chapter  leaves  them  plotting  together 
to  kill  the  Prince  of  Life ! 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Spirit.     36; 


THE    HOLY    SPIRIT. 

THE    PERSON    OF   THE    HOLY    GHOST. 

On'E  of  the  most  interesting  and  profitable  portions  of  Mr.  Moody's 
Theological  System  is  that  contained  in  his  series  of  addresses  on  the 
Person  and  Offices  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Into  this  profound  depth  of 
doctrine  he  has  prayed  his  way  farther  than  almost  any  other  man 
has  been  able  to  go  by  all  other  means,  and  both  in  Chicago  and  in 
Boston  his  course  of  lectures  thereon  resulted  in  great  spiritual  profit, 
and  excited  no  little  surprise,  first,  that  this  unlearned  man  should 
have  such  wisdom  just  where  the  Church  at  large  has  been  so  defi- 
cient ;  and,  second,  that  in  view  of  the  extreme  simplicity  of  this  line 
of  Scripture  truth  it  has  been  so  long  and  so  generally  overlooked. 

The  following  are  the  best  reports  of  Mr.  Moody's  lectures  on  the 
Holy  Spirit  from  the  daily  press  of  Chicago  and  Boston,  carefully  ar- 
ranged with  a  view  to  giving  the  substance  of  all  his  teachings  on 
this  subject,  and  that,  too,  in  Mr.  Moody's  own  style  : — 

/^\^  ^  SUDJcct  this  afternoon  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  I 
.Y~v  haven't  any  doubt  but  that  if  I  asked  all  the 
Christian  people  here  to-day  that  really  have  no  power 
in  prayer  and  in  their  work  to  rise,  there  would  be  a 
great  many  who  would  stand  up.  I  think  there  would 
be  a  great  many  who  would  say  they  have  served  God 
out  of  a  sense  of  duty,  and  that  it  has  all  been  forced 
work.  Now,  I  think  that  mistake  arises  because  people 
are  satisfied  with  the  work  that  Christ  has  done  for  them 
at  Calvary,  and  they  forget  about  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  them.  I  know  that  was  my  condition  for  years. 
I  didn't  really  understand  any  thing  about  the  Holy 
Spirit.  I  was  almost  as  ignorant  as  were  those  men 
down  there  at  Ephesus  that  Paul  tells  us  about,  who, 
when  asked  if  they  had  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since 


366      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

they  believed,  answered   that   they  hadn't  so   much  as 
heard  that  there  was  any  Holy  Ghost. 

For  the  first  eight  or  nine  years  that  I  was  a  Christian 
I  hardly  knew  there  was  such  a  person  as  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Whenever  persons  are  baptized  they  are  bap- 
tized in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  yet  there  are  veiy  few  sermons 
preached  about  him  and  about  his  work. 

I  remember  some  years  ago,  when  I  first  commenced 
to  work  for  the  Lord,  I  was  speaking  to  a  Sabbath- 
school  in  Brooklyn,  and  I  was  very  much  pleased  with 
my  effort.  Quite  a  number  had  risen  for  prayer.  When 
I  went  out  an  old  man  followed  me,  caught  me  by  the 
hand,  and  said  : — 

"Young  man,  when  you  speak  again,  honor  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

I  started  off  and  supposed  it  was  somebody  who  had 
got  some  hobby  that  he  was  riding,  and  I  didn't  know 
what  he  meant,  but  I  couldn't  get  it  out  of  my  mind. 
It  followed  me  for  days  and  for  months.  I  think  it  was 
really  months  before  I  found  out  what  he  meant ;  but  I 
have  found  out  since,  and  I  think  if  we  workers  will  keep 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  mind  our  work  will  not  be  barren  ; 
but  when  we  go  in  our  own  name,  and  in  our  own 
strength,  and  don't  look  to  Him,  our  work  will  be  un- 
successful. 

Now  the  way  to  honor  tke  Holy  Ghost  is  to  bear  in 
mind  that  he  is  equal  with  the  Father  and  with  the  Son. 
Christ  says,  in  Matthew  xxviii,  19  :  "  Go  ye  therefore,  and 
teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Fa- 
ther, and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    367 

Some  people  seem  to  think  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
never  came  to  this  world  till  he  was  sent  by  Christ 
after  his  ascension.  You  know  Christ  told  the  disciples 
to  tarry  in  Jerusalem  till  they  were  endued  with 
power  from  on  high;  and  I  think  it  would  be  a  good 
thing  if  we  could  have,  in  our  theological  seminaries, 
ten  days  set  apart  for  the  young  ministers  to  wait  till 
they  get  the  power.  There  are  many  who  start  out  to 
work  for  God  who  have  great  intellectual  power  ;  but 
one  touch  of  the  power  of  God  would  be  worth  more 
than  all  this  intellectual  power.  If  these  men  would 
tarry  more  in  Jerusalem,  and  get  more  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  they  would  accomplish  more  in  one  day  than  they 
sometimes  do  in  years.  How  many  times  have  these 
ministers  here  on  the  platform — how  many  times  have 
we,  when  we  have  been  preaching — felt  as  if  we  were  beat- 
ing the  air?  No  power — people  going  to  sleep — and 
we  couldn't  arouse  them.  But  when  the  power  of  God 
comes,  and  a  man  has  got  a  message  from  the  throne  of 
God,  then  the  Spirit  carries  him  forward. 

The  Holy  Ghost  was  in  the  world  before  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  for  we  read  in  the  second  chapter  of  Luke, 
twenty-sixth  verse,  these  words  ;  "  And  it  was  revealed 
unto  him  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  he  should  not  see 
death  before  he  had  seen  the  Lord's  Christ."  Then  we 
read  also  in  Second  Peter,  first  chapter,  twenty-first  verse  : 
"  For  the  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of 
man :  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved 
by  the  Holy  Ghost."  You  can't  cut  out  one  part  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  and  leave  the  rest  :  it  is  the  same 
Spirit  all  through. 


368      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Now  people  seem  to  forget  who  the  Holy  Ghost  is.  I 
want  you  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  is  a  person.  I  remem- 
ber in  a  prayer-meeting  some  years  ago  that  I  offered  a 
prayer,  and  prayed  for  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
and  after  I  had  got  through  a  reverend  old  divine  arose 
and  said,  "  Why  do  you  pray  to  the  Holy  Ghost  as  if  he 
were  an  influence  only?  He  is  just  as  much  a  person 
as  is  the  Father  and  the  Son." 

Let  us  notice  a  few  of  the  places  where  he  is  alluded 
to.  Turn  to  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John  and  the  six- 
teenth verse,  "  And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall 
give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you 
forever."  Now,  if  the  Holy  Ghost  is  merely  an  influence, 
why  is  he  spoken  of  in  this  way?  There  is  a  class  of 
people  who  think  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  per- 
sonal God  or  a  personal  devil.  They  are  in  the  power 
of  the  devil,  and  don't  know  it ;  but  they  will  find  out 
that  he  is  a  person  some  of  these  days,  and  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  a  person  also. 

Now  let  us  read  farther  in  the  same  chapter :  in  the 
seventeenth  verse,  "  Even  the  Spirit  of  truth  ;  whom  the 
world  cannot  receive,  because  it  seeth  him  not,  neither 
knoweth  him:  but  ye  know  him;  for  he  dwelleth  with 
you,  and  shall  be  in  you."  "  He  "  and  "  him  "  are  the 
words  used,  you  see.  Again,  in  the  twenty-sixth  verse 
of  the  same  chapter,  "  But  the  Comforter,  which  is  the 
Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he 
shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to  your 
remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you."  And 
again,  in  the  sixteenth  chapter  and  eighth  verse,  "  And 
when  he  is  come,  he  will  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  and  of 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    369 

righteousness,  and  of  judgment."  Notice  how  many 
times  John  repeats  the  "  he." 

You  can't  reach  a  man  that  the  Holy  Ghost  hasn't 
entered.  The  Holy  Ghost  must  convince  him  of  sin. 
A  great  many  people  come  into  this  meeting  and  they 
say,  ''Here  in  this  great  crowd  no  one  will  know  us." 
Hut  One  does  see  them  ;  the  Holy  Ghost  is  abroad, 
and  he  will  find  them  ;  and  when  the  word  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  does  reach  them,  it  will  cut  like  a  two-edged 
sword. 

There  was  a  man  in  Philadelphia  who  attended  a 
meeting  in  the  Tabernacle  with  his  wife.  On  the  way 
home  he  refused  to  speak  to  her,  and  the  next  day  he 
refused  to  speak  to  her,  and  during  a  part  of  the  next ; 
and  when  she  asked  what  the  matter  was,  he  said,  "  What 
did  you  want  to  tell  Mr.  Moody  about  me  for?"  "I 
didn't,"  she  said.  "  How  did  he  know  about  me,  then? 
He  was  just  telling  every  body  about  me." 

You  see  something  I  had  said  struck  right  home  to 
him.  The  Holy  Ghost  was  abroad,  and  had  moved  me 
to  speak  the  words  that  suited  his  case.  The  Holy 
Spirit  had  said  to  him,  while  I  was  speaking,  "  Thou  art 
the  man."  That  was  Christ's  promise:  "When  he  is 
come,  he  will  reprove  the  world  of  sin."  Let  us  ask  the 
I  loly  Spirit  to  show  us  our  sins. 

Then,  in  the  third  chapter  of  John,  we  find  that  we 
get  life  through  the  Holy  Spirit.  That  is  what  we  want 
— life  ;  life  in  the  Church.  But  if  the  life  in  the  Church 
is  not  from  him  it  will  be  artificial.  What  we  are  pray- 
ing for  in  Boston  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     It  is 

the  Holv  Ghost  with  a  man  that  first  gives  him  life, 
lu*' 


370      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

You  cannot  educate  a  man  in  spiritual  things  until  he 
is  born  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  carnal  mind  cannot 
understand  spiritual  things.  The  trouble  is,  people  who 
do  not  believe  in  God,  and  who  are  not  spiritual,  are 
trying  to  expound  the  word  of  God  and  to  understand 
spiritual  things.  You  must  have  a  new  birth  before  you 
can  understand  God's  word.  "  That  which  is  born  of  the 
flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is 
spirit."  When  we  are  born  of  God  we  can  receive  the 
things  of  God,  and  not  before. 

Now  take  this  passage  from  I  Pet.  iii,  18,  "  For  Christ 
also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the  unjust, 
that  he  might  bring  us  to  God,  being  put  to  death  in  the 
flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  Spirit."  That  is  it :  we  must 
be  quickened  by  the  Spirit.  We  are  not  saved  by  cult- 
ure, we  are  saved  by  the  mighty  power  of  God  quicken- 
ening  us  into  new  life.  When  he  works  he  does  not 
work  for  the  moment,  but  for  all  eternity.  In  the  Spirit 
only  can  we  be  saved,  for  God  has  condemned  the  flesh, 
and  it  cannot  enter  his  presence.  He  has  saved  souls 
every-where ;  so  he  will  save  souls  here  in  Boston. 

Another  work  of  the  Spirit  is  to  inspire  love.  See 
Rom.  v,  5,  "  Because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in 
our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  given  unto  us." 
If  you  should  ask  me  what  the  Church  in  America  most 
lacks,  I  should  say,  Love.  Let  this  love  sink  down 
deep  into  your  hearts.  It  has  power  with  infidels  and 
skeptics.  You  cannot  save  them  by  argument  but  you 
may  by  love.  God  gave  his  disciples  a  badge ;  it  was 
the  badge  of  love.  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye 
are  my  disciples  if  ye  love  one  another."    There  can  be  no 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    371 

life  in  a  Church  without  love.  A  minister  with  a  power- 
ful intellect  is  of  no  use  unless  he  has  this  love,  and  the 
power  which  comes  from  the  Holy  Ghost.  Now  the 
great  question  is,  "Have  we  got  that  love?"  Not,  do 
you  love  those  that  love  you,  but  do  you  love  those  who 
are  your  enemies?  To  love  the  men  that  persecute  us, 
that  slander  us,  that  spread  false  reports  about  us,  we 
need  the  Holy  Ghost  shed  abroad  in  us;  and  if  we  have 
that  love,  a  great  many  sinners  will  be  reached  in  a  little 
while. 

Romans  xv,  13,  "Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with 
all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in 
hope  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Thus  you 
see  the  Holy  Ghost  imparts  not  only  love  but  hope. 
Christ  doesn't  use  discouraged  people  for  his  work.  He 
likes  hopeful  people.  If  your  minister  is  cold,  warm  up 
yourself.  One  man  with  his  soul  full  of  hope  and  fire 
can  rouse  a  whole  Church.  You  like  to  meet  a  man  that 
is  full  of  hope.  Our  dear,  lamented  friend,  Mr.  Bliss, 
was  one  of  these  men.  He  used  to  set  my  heart  on  fire. 
He  was  full  of  hope,  and  I  believe  that  was  how  he  was 
enabled  to  write  us  those  beautiful  hymns  we  sing.  He 
was  full  of  the  life  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

There  is  one  thing  more  that  the  Holy  Ghost  gives 
us,  and  that  is,  liberty.  "  Now  the  Lord  is  that  Spirit : 
and  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty." 
2  Cor.  iii,  17.  "  Liberty  "  is  what  is  wanted  in  the  pulpit 
and  in  the  prayer-meeting,  and  when  this  liberty  comes 
people  will  no  longer  be  afraid  to  rise  up  before  the  law- 
yer or  the  learned  man  who  comes  to  criticise.  When 
we  have  this  liberty  how  easy  it    is   to   preach!     Work 


372      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

does  not  kill  men  ;  they  die  of  working  at  a  disadvan- 
tage ;  working  without  the  liberty  of  the  Spirit.  God's 
yoke  is  easy  ;  his  burden  is  light  ;  and  this  liberty  is 
free  to  you  if  you  will  have  it ;  you  have  only  to  ask 
for  it. 

[In  concluding,  Mr.  Moody  asked  all  to  join  with  him 
in  prayer  for  these  three  graces  of  the  Holy  Ghost — love 
hope — liberty.] 

THE   WORK   OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

On  resuming  the  subject  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  Mr.  Moody 
read  the  lesson  for  the  day,  which  was  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  John, 
upon  which  he  made  the  following  brief  comments,  beginning  with 
the  seventh  verse  : — 

"  Nevertheless  I  tell  you  the  truth  ;  It  is  expedient 
for  you  that  I  go  away :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Com- 
forter will  not  come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send 
him  unto  you."  Christ  does  not  talk  like  a  man  who  is 
going  down  into  the  grave,  never  to  be  seen  again  by  his 
disciples.  It  is  true  he  tells  them  he  is  to  be  killed,  but 
he  is  to  rise  again,  and  go  up  to  heaven  to  prepare  a 
place  for  them.  Those  who  attack  the  divinity  of  Christ 
do  not  believe  that  he  is  risen  from  the  dead,  and  inter- 
ceding for  us  before  the  Father ;  and  that  he  sends  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  comfort  and  enlighten  those  who  believe 
on  him.  I  am  glad  that  the  public  mind  is  agitated  on 
this  question,  "  Who  is  Christ  ?  "  If  he  is  not  the  Son 
of  God  I  don't  know  of  any  body  who  can  tell  us  who  he 
is.  If  he  is  no  more  than  a  good  man,  we  must  throw 
away  the  whole  of  the  Gospel  of  John. 

"  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away."     Christ  has 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    373 

gone  away  on  an  errand  for  us  ;  and  what  better  place 
could  he  choose  to  be  of  service  to  us  than  up  in  heaven 
before  his  Father's  throne?  Here  we  have  Satan  for  an 
accuser;  there  we  have  Christ  for  an  advocate:  and, 
what  is  more,  we  have  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is 
every-where  teaching  and  comforting  believers.  When 
any  of  his  friends  are  in  trouble  Christ  looks  down  from 
heaven  and  sees  them,  and  perhaps  sends  an  angel  to 
comfort  and  help  them  ;  but  if  he  does  not  send  an  angel 
he  does  send  the  Holy  Spirit. 

In  the  eighth  and  ninth  verses  we  have  these  words: 
"  And  when  he  [the  Holy  Spirit]  is  come,  he  will  reprove 
the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment." 
Of  sin,  why?  Because  men  murder,  and  steal,  and  lie, 
and  swear,  and  get  drunk  ?  There  are  a  good  many 
people  who  think  it  is  the  principal  office  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  convict  men  of  these  sins;  but  the  Scripture 
does  not  read  so.  It  says,  "  Of  sin,  because  they  believe 
not  on  me."  Unbelief  is  the  wo/ld's  worst  enemy. 
Christ  met  it  on  both  sides  of  the  cross.  This  is  the  tree 
that  brings  forth  all  the  bitter  fruit. 

Sinners  often  try  to  shield  themselves  from  the  com- 
ing judgment  for  their  sins  by  pretending  not  to  believe 
in  punishment  at  all ;  but  it  is  far  better  for  the  sinner 
to  admit  his  condemnation  and  escape  to  Christ,  than 
to  go  on  in  self-deception  and  perish  at  last.  You  can 
hardly  find  a  rum-seller  in  Boston  but  will  tell  you  he 
don't  believe  the  Bible.  He  doesn't  read  it,  because  he 
knows  it  condemns  him. 

It  is  a  good  thing  that  it  is  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  convince  the  world  of  their  sins,  for  we  are  not 


374      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

able  to  do  it.  I  should  feel  overwhelmed  at  the  idea  of 
facing  such  an  audience  as  this  if  I  had  the  responsi- 
bility on  me  of  convincing  you  all  of  your  sins. 


CONVICTION. 

In  the  seventh  chapter  of  Acts,  fifty-first  verse,  we  read : 
"  Ye  stiffnecked,  and  uncircumcised  in  heart  and  ears, 
ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost  :  as  your  fathers 
did,  so  do  ye.  Which  of  the  prophets  have  not  your 
fathers  persecuted  ?  and  they  have  slain  them  which 
showed  before  of  the  coming  of  the  Just  One  ;  of  whom 
ye  have  been  now  the  betrayers  and  murderers:  who 
have  received  the  law  by  the  disposition  of  angels,  and 
have  not  kept  it.  When  they  heard  these  things,  they 
were  cut  to  the  heart,  and  they  gnashed  on  him  with 
their  teeth." 

You  see  their  hearts  were  cut  to  the  quick  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost.  And  so  it  was  when  Stephen  preached  his 
last  sermon.  He  didn't  keep  any  thing  back.  He  knew 
that  it  would  cost  him  his  life  to  preach  the  truth,  but 
he  did  it.  "  Ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost." 
That  is  what  the  world  is  doing  to-day — resisting. 

Why  do  men  resist  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Because  "  He 
will  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and 
of  judgment."  He  tells  men  their  faults.  He  don't  tell 
a  man  how  noble  and  how  great  he  is :  the  devil  has 
been  doing  that  for  six  thousand  years.  The  Holy 
Spirit  don't  flatter  sinners ;  and  that  is  the  reason  a. 
great  many  don't  like  Holy  Ghost  preaching,  because  it 
convinces  them  of  sin.     You  tell  a  man  his  faults,  and  he 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    375 

will  get  mad  ;   but  I  had  a  great  deal  rather  you  would 
tell  me  my  faults  than  let  me  go  down  to  death. 

Some  people  think  that  the  broad  road  Is  an  easy  way, 
but  I  tell  you  it  is  a  very  hard  way.  You  have  to  pass 
over  the  prayers  of  your  best  friends,  and  all  the  way 
down  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  you  have  to  resist  the 
Holy  Ghost.  "  Ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost." 
If  men  would  only  stop  resisting,  and  come  to  them- 
selves, and  be  led  by  that  Spirit,  he  would  lead  them 
into  all  truth. 

There  are  more  people  ruined  by  flattery  than  by  tell- 
ing them  their  faults.  We  once  found  a  man  in  Chicago 
sleeping  on  the  sidewalk.  It  was  one  of  the  coldest 
days  of  the  season,  and  we  knew  he  would  freeze  to 
death  if  we  didn't  wake  him.  So  we  woke  him,  and  he 
got  mad  with  us.  That  was  just  what  we  wanted — to 
get  his  blood  stirred,  and  then  he  would  be  all  right. 
So  sometimes  the  Holy  Ghost  wakes  up  men,  and  they 
wake  up  mad.  But  that  is  a  good  sign  :  it  is  better  to 
have  them  wake  up  cross  than  sleepy,  because  the  devil 
can't  rock  them  to  sleep  again  easy. 

O  that  we  may  have  preaching  that  will  wake  people 
up  and  set  their  consciences  at  work ! 

In  the  second  of  Corinthians,  third  chapter  and  sixth 
verse,  there  is  something  I  want  to  call  your  attention 
to.  But  first  let  me  tell  you  of  a  circumstance.  A 
lady  came  to  me  some  time  ago  and  wanted  to  know 
why  it  was  they  hadn't  any  conversions  in  her  Church? 
She  said  that  the  minister  preached  good  sound  ortho- 
dox doctrine,  every  sermon  was  sound  ;  there  was  no 
trouble   about    that.      I   said,  that   might   be,  but   there 


376      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

must  be  something  besides  sound  doctrine.  I  don't  know 
of  any  thing  more  disheartening  than  dead  orthodoxy. 
I  fear  that  more  than  all  the  isms.  Orthodoxy,  dead,  is 
an  abomination  to  God  and  man.  We  want  to  hold 
these  truths,  not  in  any  formal  way,  but  in  living  power; 
and  if  men  lived  what  they  profess  to  believe  and 
preach,  Christianity  would  have  a  mighty  influence  in 
this  world. 

I  think  this  verse  (2  Corinthians  iii,  6)  throws  light 
upon  this  point :  "  Who  also  hath  made  us  able  minis- 
ters of  the  new  testament ;  not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the 
spirit :  for  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  Spirit  giveth  life." 

Let  us  see.  If  we  have  sound  doctrine  only,  and  not 
the  Spirit  of  God  back  of  the  doctrine,  it  doesn't  bring 
life  to  the  heart.  "  The  letter  killeth,"  and  that  is  what 
"  dead  orthodoxy  "  is  doing.  "  The  letter  killeth,"  but 
the  Spirit  giveth  life." 


OUR   LEADER. 

The  next  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  I  want  you  to  study 
is  his  leadership.  Take  Galatians  v,  18,  "But  if  ye  be 
led  by  the  Spirit,  ye  are  not  under  the  law."  Now  every 
child  of  God  ought  to  be  led  by  the  Spirit,  and  as  long 
as  they  are  led  by  him  they  are  led  into  light,  and  not 
into  darkness.  The  Spirit  of  God  never  led  any  one  into 
darkness ;  and  if  there  are  any  Christians  here  to-day  in 
darkness,  it  is  because  they  are  not  willing  to  be  led  by 
the  Spirit.  That  is  the  way  we  are  to  get  into  the  king- 
dom of  God. 

Perhaps  many  of  you   have  been  talking  with  souls 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Spirit.    377 

that  have  been  struggling  and  praying  to  get  into 
liberty,  and  into  God's  kingdom,  and  you  have  watched 
their  countenances  as  the  light  broke  upon  them  and 
their  faces  have  shone  with  a  glorious  light.  Now  that 
takes  place  when  a  man  is  willing  to  let  the  Spirit  lead 
him  ;  that  is,  when  he  is  converted. 

The  conflict  to  get  into  the  kingdom  of  God  isn't  God's 
fault.  A  Scotchman  once  said,  it  took  two  to  bring  him 
to  God — it  took  the  Lord  and  himself.  A  friend  asked 
him  what  he  did,  and  he  said,  "  I  fought  against  God, 
and  the  Lord  did  all  the  rest."  That  is  the  great  trouble  ; 
people  are  not  willing  to  give  up  their  own  way,  but 
when  they  are  ready  to  surrender  and  be  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  he  leads  them  unto  life  eternal.  O  Chris- 
tians, if  you  will  be  led  by  the  Spirit  you  will  have  an 
Instructor  who  will  throw  light  on  many  questions  you 
don't  now  understand.  Those  who  are  led  by  the  Spirit 
don't  know  what  darkness  is;  but  when  we  want  our 
own  way,  and  are  led  by  the  flesh  and  the  motives  of 
the  flesh  —  when  the  world  and  the  influences  of  the 
world  lead  us  —  then  it  is  that  we  get  into  darkness. 
Let  us  ask  ourselves  to-day,  "Am  I  led  by  the  Spirit?" 

It  says  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Romans,  first  verse: 
"  There  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  which 
are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but 
after  the  Spirit."  If  we  walk  after  the  Spirit  our  con- 
sciences are  not  all  the  time  lashing  us.  I  think  that 
the  trouble  with  a  great  many  Christians  is,  they  are 
all  the  time  condemning  themselves.  Why?  Because 
they  are  led  by  the  flesh,  and  not  by  the  Spirit. 

But  how  are  we  to  find  out  whether  it  is  the  Spirit  of 


378      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

God  leading  us,  or  whether  it  is  the  flesh  ?  Why,  you 
will  find  it  in  the  word  :  the  Holy  Ghost  always  quotes 
the  word.  You  will  find  that  a  man  who  is  full  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  generally  full  of  Scripture,  and  that  will 
lead  you  aright.  But  a  man  who  speculates,  and  has 
dreams  and  every  thing  else  but  the  word  to  offer  you, 
you  cannot  tell  where  he  will  lead  you.  If  a  man  says 
to  me  that  the  Spirit  told  him  so  and  so,  I  would  rather 
have  him  draw  on  the  Bible  for  what  he  is  saying,  and 
then  I  can  know  for  sure  whether  the  Spirit  said  it. 

If  we  only  get  into  our  hearts  this  lesson  about  giving 
up  our  own  way  and  will  entirely  to  God,  and  being  led 
by  the  Spirit,  we  shall  be  saved  from  a  great  many  of  these 
dark  hours,  and  from  many  a  conflict  with  the  enemy. 
Do  you  think  Lot  would  have  gone  to  Sodom  if  he  had 
been  led  by  the  Spirit  ?  Do  you  think  that  men  in  Bos- 
ton would  be  troubled  about  their  souls  if  they  were  led 
by  the  Spirit?  Do  you  think  that  men  would  fail  in 
business  if  they  were  led  by  the  Spirit  ?  It  is  this  wild 
ambition  to  get  rich,  or  to  stand  at  the  head  of  some  pro- 
fession, that  is  ruining  so  many  souls.  Men  are  all  the 
time  taking  false  steps,  because  they  are  not  willing  to 
be  led  by  the  Spirit. 

The  question  of  public  amusements  comes  up,  and  it 
is  asked,  "  Is  it  right  to  dance?"  All  I  have  to  say  is, 
If  the  Spirit  of  God  says  dance,  then  dance.  Let  the 
Spirit  of  God  be  your  teacher,  and  you  will  see  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong. 

Men  ask,  "  Is  it  consistent  for  me  to  go  to  the  theater?" 
Christ  didn't  really  lay  down  any  rule  about  that,  men- 
tioning it  in  particular,  but  his  direction  is,  that  you  give 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Sri  kit.    379 

yourselves  up  to  the  Spirit  and  the  word.  Then  you 
will  be  guided  aright  and  make  no  mistake.  A  man  told 
me  in  Chicago  that  he  had  been  converted,  but  he  said 
he  hadn't  given  up  anything:  he  hadn't  given  up  the 
theater  or  novels,  and  wasn't  agoing  to  give  them  up. 
Well,  he  went  to  the  theater  once  after  that,  but  he  said 
he  didn't  care  to  stay.  He  couldn't  read  novels,  for  he 
hadn't  any  taste  for  them.  The  reason  was  simple 
enough  :  when  a  man  is  filled  with  the  Spirit  he  wont 
love  those  things  he  once  did  ;  his  love  has  been  turned 
into  another  channel.  Men  say  that  they  can't  give  up 
this  thing  or  that  thing,  but  only  let  the  Spirit  of  God 
get  into  their  hearts  and  they  can.  They  can't  do  it  of 
themselves,  but  they  can  through  God  helping  them. 

You  speak  of  this  pleasure  or  that,  but  the  teaching  of 
the  word  is,  that  if  you  take  the  Spirit  of  God  it  will  en- 
lighten you  on  all  these  points. 

A  friend  of  my  wife  had  a  beautiful  little  boy  about 
four  years  old  who  put  his  eye  out  with  a  pair  of  scissors. 
Since  then  my  wife  has  always  been  very  careful  about 
scissors.  But  one  day  little  Willie  got  them,  and  his  sis- 
ter couldn't  get  them  away  from  him.  She  knew  that 
he  was  fond  of  oranges,  so  she  ran  and  got  one  and  held 
it  up,  and  said,  "  Don't  you  want  an  orange  ?"  And  he 
just  dropped  the  scissors  and  went  for  that  orange — that 
was  better  than  the  scissors.  Now,  that  is  just  the  way 
to  treat  the  infidel,  give  him  something  better  than  he 
has  got  ;  and  if  the  Spirit  of  God  gets  down  into  his 
heart  he  will  have  something  better  and  something  that 
will  satisfy  him.  Those  who  are  led  by  the  spirit  of  the 
world  cannot   give   up   the  world  :   they  haven't   found 


380      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

God;  but  when  they  begin  to  be  led  by  his  Spirit,  he 
turns  their  appetites  and  tastes,  so  that  what  they  once 
loved  they  now  hate. 

An  old  citizen  came  to  me  last  night,  and  said,  "  I 
hope  you  wont  speak  without  having  just  a  word  for 
the  poor  drunkard."  I  do  want  to  hold  out  a  hope  to 
the  drunkards.  If  they  will  only  accept  God  they  will 
get  the  world  under  their  feet,  and  God  will  give  them 
power  to  hurl  the  cup  from  their  lips.  No  other  power 
can  do  it. 

If  you  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  you  can  be  saved. 
Now  just  give  yourself  up  while  I  am  talking,  and  say : 
"  Spirit  of  God,  lead  me  ;  I  give  up  all  to  you  ;  I  make 
a  complete  surrender.  God's  will  shall  be  my  will,  and 
his  Spirit  shall  lead  me  from  this  day  and  hour,"  and  see 
how  quick  he  will  come  to  your  help.  If  you  get  your 
hand  in  God's  he  will  lead  you  safely  to  the  light.  Don't 
think  that  he  will  desert  you.  He  knows  your  life,  your 
wants,  your  temptations.  No  soul  ever  went  wrong 
when  led  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 


A  WITNESS  FOR  CHRIST. 
ANOTHER  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  testify  of 
Christ.  He  comes  for  that  purpose.  I  believe  the 
world  would  have  forgotten  Christ's  death  as  soon  as 
they  forgot  his  birth  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  Holy 
Ghost.  It  had  only  been  thirty  years  since  his  birth. 
All  those  wonderful  scenes  had  happened  in  Bethle- 
hem, and  were  well  known  in  Jerusalem,  yet  he  seems 
to  have  been  forgotten  until  he  appeared  to  commence 


Outlinls  of  Doctrine — Tin-:  Holy  Spirit.    381 

his  public  ministry;  and  they  would  have  forgotten  his 
death  too  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  Holy  Ghost.  He 
came  to  testify  of  Jesus  Christ  that  he  had  risen.  He 
saw  him  in  heaven,  and  he  came  to  tell  us  he  was  there 
at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

The  Holy  Ghost  don't  speak  much  about  himself,  and 
a  great  many  people  wonder  why  they  cannot  under- 
stand more  about  him.  The  fact  is,  he  came  not  to 
speak  of  himself,  but  of  Christ.  "  Howbeit  when  he, 
the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide  you  into  all 
truth  :  for  he  shall  not  speak  of  himself;  but  whatsoever 
he  shall  hear,  that  shall  he  speak  :  and  he  will  show  you 
things  to  come."  John  xvi,  13. 

His  work  is  not  to  speak  of  himself,  but  to  speak  of 
Christ.  Supposing  I  had  an  only  son  out  in  California, 
and  a  man  came  to  me  this  afternoon  and  said,  "  Mr. 
Moody,  I  am  going  out  to  California,  and  I  will  probably 
see  your  son ;  would  you  like  to  send  any  message  ? " 
and  I  sent  a  message  to  my  absent  boy  ;  and  when  the 
man  gets  out  there  he  talks  to  my  son  about  himself! 
That  wouldn't  be  what  my  boy  would  want  to  hear,  but 
of  his  absent  parents.  And  so  the  Holy  Ghost  comes 
to  testify  of  Christ.     That  is  his  work. 

When  a  man  preaches  Christ,  then  the  Holy  Ghost  has 
got  something  to  do — to  carry  home  the  message  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people  ;  but  if  a  man  preaches  himself,  his 
sermons  have  no  power.  If  he  preaches  an  error  he  can't 
be  successful ;  but  when  a  man  lifts  up  Christ  instead  of 
himself — when  he  lifts  up  the  Son  of  God — then  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  at  work  carrying  those  truths  down  into  the 
hearts  of  the  people  and  making  the  word  fruitful. 


382      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

Wc  read  that  his  work  is  to  testify.  You  know  that 
when  Abraham  wanted  to  get  a  bride  for  his  son  Isaac 
he  sent  his  servant  to  Haran  to  get  Rebecca.  He 
told  her  all  about  Isaac's  inheritance,  and  gave  her 
the  magnificent  presents,  and  wanted  her  to  go  with 
him  at  once.  Her  parents  wanted  her  to  wait  ten  days ; 
but  no,  she  went  at  once,  and  was  led  through  the  wil- 
derness by  the  messenger,  to  Isaac.  It  is  these  ten 
days  that  are  the  great  fault  with  people.  The  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  lead  us  through  the  wilderness 
to  Christ  at  once. 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  to  tell  us  of  God.  If  a  man  gets 
up  in  a  prayer-meeting  and  talks  about  his  love  for  God 
it  chills  me  ;  but  if  he  talks  about  God's  love  for  him, 
that  fires  my  heart. 

In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  John  and  twenty-sixth 
verse,  it  says  :  "  But  when  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom 
I  will  send  unto  you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of 
truth,  which  proceedeth.from  the  Father,  he  shall  testify 
of  me."  When  we  begin  to  speak  of  Christ  then  the 
Holy  Ghost  begins  to  work. 

Peter,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  had  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  and  when  he  preached,  the  Holy  Ghost 
power  struck  down  into  the  hearts  of  three  thousand 
people,  and  they  were  convicted  and  converted  right 
then  and  there. 

Christ  said  he  would  send  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  he 
was  as  good  as  his  word.  You  may  call  that  Galilean 
fisherman  illiterate,  but  the  Holy  Ghost  testified  that 
day  that  what  he  said  was  true,  and  there  was  never 
such    a   successful    sermon    preached    in    all   the    world 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    383 

before.  Men  can  shut  their  cars  against  yonr  words; 
but  if  the  Holy  Ghost  speaks  to  them  they  must  hear, 
at  least,  whether  they  heed  or  not. 


INDWELLING   OF   THE   HOLY   SPIRIT. 
I   want   to  call  your   attention    to   the  three  places    in 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  dwelt. 

In  the  fortieth  chapter  of  Exodus,  at  the  setting  up  of  the 
tabernacle,  the  thirty-fourth  verse  say§  :  "  Then  a  cloud 
covered  the  tent  of  the  congregation,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  filled  the  tabernacle.  And  Moses  was  not  able  to 
enter  into  the  tent  of  the  congregation,  because  the  cloud 
abode  thereon,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the  taber- 
nacle." No  sooner  had  they  got  that  tabernacle  done 
than  the  Holy  Ghost  came  into  it ;  and  so  if  we  let  God 
just  cleanse  our  hearts  from  sin  the  Holy  Ghost  will  come 
in  and  fill  them  with  faith.  We  are  temples  for  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  dwell  in. 

Now,  look  at  second  Chronicles,  fifth  chapter,  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  verses  : — 

"  It  came  even  to  pass,  as  the  trumpeters  and  singers 
were  as  one,  to  make  one  sound  to  be  heard  in  praising 
and  thanking  the  Lord  ;  and  when  they  lifted  up  their 
voice  with  the  trumpets  and  cymbals  and  instruments  of 
music,  and  praised  the  Lord  saying,  '  For  he  is  good  ;  for 
his  mercy  endureth  forever  :  that  then  the  house  was  filled 
with  a  cloud,  even  the  house  of  the  Lord  ;  so  that  the 
priests  could  not  stand  to  minister  by  reason  of  the  cloud  : 
for  the  glory  of  the  Lord  had  filled  the  house  of  God." 

When    Solomon  offered  his  prayer  the  temple  at  Jeru- 


384      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

salem  was  filled  with  the  glory  of  God.  Now  we  want 
to  have  this  tabernacle  here  in  Boston  filled  with  the 
glory  of  God.  We  want  that  cloud  to  come  down  upon 
us,  so  that  when  ungodly  men  come  in  here  they  may  be 
moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  want  the  Holy  Ghost 
power  here  for  the  sake  of  both  the  saved  and  the  unsaved. 

We  find  that  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  disciples  were 
of  one  mind  and  one  spirit  ;  so  when  we  are  of  one  accord 
the  Holy  Ghost  will  come  and  fill  this  place.  Now  if  we 
are  in  the  true  Church — and  the  true  Church  is  that 
which  has  Jesus  for  a  leader,  for  he  is  the  head  of  the 
Church — then  the  Holy  Ghost  will  fill  us,  and  we  shall 
have  power  with  God  from  on  high. 

It  says  here  in  Ephesians  i,  13,  "In  whom  ye  also 
trusted,  after  that  ye  heard  the  word  of  truth,  the  Gospel 
of  your  salvation  :  in  whom  also,  after  that  ye  believed,  ye 
were  sealed  with  that  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  which  is 
the  earnest  of  our  inheritance  until  the  redemption  of 
the  purchased  possession,  unto  the  praise  of  his  glory." 
You  are  sealed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  day  of  re- 
demption. What  need  you  fear  ?  Who  is  going  to  break 
God's  seal  ?  Can  all  the  devils  of  hell  do  it  ?  Has  man 
got  the  power  to  do  it  ?  It  is  the  blood  that  cleanses 
from  sin.  If  we  are  sealed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  who  is 
going  to  break  that  divine  seal  ?  When  we  are  washed 
in  that  blood  the  Holy  Ghost  comes  and  seals  us  for  the 
day  of  redemption.  In  Ephesians  iv,  30,  it  says  the  same 
thing :  "  And  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby 
ye  are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption." 

There  was  once  a  poor  beggar  who  died.  I  call  him 
poor,  but  he  was  rich  in  the  sight  of  God  ;  though  he  did 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.   5S5 

die   in    the  poor-house,   and  they  hurried    him    off  to  a 
pauper's  grave. 

You  know  that  paupers  haven't  many  friends  ;  and  as 
they  were  making  all  haste  to  get  him  buried,  the  minister 
who  conducted  the  funeral  said  to  them  :  "  Walk  softly  ! 
you  carry  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Yes,  the  believer 
has  become  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  want  our 
hearts  purged  from  sin,  and  then  let  the  Holy  Ghost 
come  and  fill  us  as  it  did  that  tabernacle.  Let  our  bodies 
first  become  a  temple  for  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  then  we 
shall  have  power  to  pray  and  to  work  for  God,  and  be 
successful  in  our  work. 


REGENERATION. 

We    have  for  our   subject    to-day   the  third   chapter  of 

John.     I  will  read,  commencing  at  the  sixth  verse  :  "That 

which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh  ;  and  that  which  is  born 

of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.     Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee, 

Ye  must  be  born  again.     The  wind  bloweth  where  it  list- 

eth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell 

whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that 

is  born  of  the  Spirit." 

With  this  let  me  read  a  few  verses  in  the  eighth  chapter 

of  Romans:  "There  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to 

them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk   not  after  the 

flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit.     For   the  law  of  the  Spirit  of 

life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin 

and  death.     For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was 

weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending  his  own  Son  in  the 

likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the 
17 


386      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

flesh  :  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled 
in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit. 
For  they  that  are  after  the  flesh,  do  mind  the  things  of 
the  flesh  ;  but  they  that  are  after  the  Spirit,  the  things  of 
the  Spirit.  For  to  be  carnally  minded  is  death  ;  but  to 
be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace.  Because  the  car- 
nal mind  is  enmity  against  God  :  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the 
law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be.  So  then  they  that  are 
in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God." 

I  think  you  will  see  by  reading  that  why  it  is  that  a  man 
needs  to  be  born  again.  They  that  are  in  the  flesh  can- 
not please  God.  There  must,  therefore,  be  a  new  birth. 
A  great  many  have  come  to  me,  and  written  to  me,  to  say 
that  they  cannot  set  the  day  and  hour  that  they  were  con- 
verted. I  do  not  think  it  is  necessary  to  know  the  day  and 
hour  when  we  were  born  of  the  Spirit ;  the  question  is, 
Have  we  been  born  of  the  Spirit  ?  and  we  can  find  that  out 
by  putting  the  tests  to  ourselves.  If  we  love  the  world,  or 
ourselves,  or  our  friends,  more  than  we  love  the  Lord,  it  is  a 
good  sign  that  we  have  not  been  born  from  above  ;  because 
if  we  have  been  born  of  the  Spirit,  God  takes  the  first  place 
in  our  hearts  ;  and  if  he  does  not  do  that,  it  is  a  pretty  good 
sign  that  we  have  not  been  born  again.  If  we  cannot  tell 
the  day  and  the  hour,  but  can  say  that  we  really  do  love 
God  above  every  thing  else — that  God  has  the  first  place  in 
our  hearts — it  seems  to  me  good  evidence  that  we  have 
been  born  again.  If  we  have  not  that  evidence  let  us  give 
up  all  our  false  hopes  and  seek  a  hope  worth  having. 

It  says  in  the  first  of  Corinthians,  fifteenth  chapter: 
"The  first  man  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul;  the  last 
Adam  was  made  a  quickening  spirit.     Howbeit  that  was 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Spirit.  387 

not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural : 
and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of 
the  earth,  earthy  :  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven. 
As  is  the  earthy,  such  are  they  also  that  are  earthy  ;  and 
as  is  the  heavenly,  such  are  they  also  that  are  heavenly. 
And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall 
also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly." 

First  comes  the  natural,  then  comes  the  spiritual.  Some 
people  have  an  idea  that  this  is  a  thing  they  have  got 
to  educate  themselves  into,  or  grow  into.  Now,  if  this 
being  born  again  is  a  matter  of  birth,  it  must  be  the  work 
of  God  and  not  our  work  ;  it  must  be  something  from 
above.  It  is  not  natural  but  supernatural.  It  is  the  Spirit 
of  God  turning  the  whole  current  of  our  life,  because  he 
says,  in  the  Second  Epistle  of  Corinthians,  the  fifth  chap- 
ter and  the  seventeenth  verse,  "  If  any  man  be  in  Christ, 
he  is  a  new  creature :  old  things  are  passed  away ;  be- 
hold, all  things  are  become  new."  Now  it  seems  to  me 
as  soon  as  we  get  this  in  our  mind  correctly  we  shall  give 
up  this  idea  of  trying  to  save  ourselves.  I  don't  believe 
any  man  or  woman  is  ever  saved  until  they  get  done  try- 
ing to  save  themselves  and  let  the  Lord  save  them. 

I  have  heard  an  illustration  which  I  think  helps  to  clear 
up  this  point.  A  man  buys  a  farm  which  has  an  old 
well  on  it  in  which  there  is  an  old  pump.  One  of  the 
neighbors  tells  him  that  he  hadn't  better  use  the  water,  for* 
the  man  who  lived  there  before  was  poisoned  by  drinking 
it.  He  says,  "  I  will  see  about  that,"  so  he  takes  and  paints 
the  old  pump,  and  says,  "  Now  that  water  is  all  right." 
Then  he  goes  to  pumping  and  drinking  the  water,  and,  of 
course,  he  is  poisoned.     Now  that  is  just  what  men  are 


388      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

trying  to  do  ;  they  paint  up  the  old  pump,  when  their  heart 
is  sending  forth  this  poisonous  water.  If  your  heart  has 
been  regenerated,  and  you  have  been  born  of  the  Spirit, 
then  your  life  will  be  right ;  there  will  be  no  trouble  then  ; 
a  man  will  not  have  to  serve  God  ;  he  cannot  help  it,  it 
becomes  his  nature.  A  man  who  has  been  blaspheming 
and  swearing  will  not  want  to  swear,  because  God  has  re- 
created him  in  the  image  of  God  ;  he  is  born  of  the  Spirit 
from  above.  If  a  man  has  not  got  this  nature  which 
goes  out  toward  God,  it  is  a  true  sign  he  has  not  been 
born  of  God. 

God's  plan  is  altogether  different  from  ours.  Man  is  all 
the  time  trying  to  patch  up  and  mend.  God  never  mends 
any  thing  ;  he  always  creates  anew.  When  Adam  fell 
God  promised  a  new  life  through  a  second  Adam :  that  is 
what  we  must  have  ;  and  when  a  man  is  born  anew  of 
the  Spirit  he  has  a  heart  that  can  serve  God,  and  not 
until  then. 

FRUITS  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 
Here  is  a  passage  I  want  you  to  read,  in  the  fifth  chapter 
of  Galatians,  seventeenth  verse,  that  will  help  us  to  de- 
cide this  question  of  whether  we  have  really  been  born  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  or  not.  I  believe  that  many  people  have 
been  converted  to  some  men,  or  some  Church,  or  creed,  or 
preacher,  or  some  good  choir — they  like  the  organ  per- 
haps, or  the  fine  singing.  I  believe  that  is  the  way  some 
men  and  women  get  into  the  Church  before  they  are  born 
of  the  Spirit ;  and  that  is  the  cause  of  a  good  deal  of  mis- 
chief in  the  Church,  and  has  got  a  good  many  members 
into  trouble. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — Tiik  Holy  Sri  kit.  3S9 

You  are  not  to  rest  your  hope  of  heaven  upon  yourself, 
but  look  at  the  word,  and  sec  if  you  have  passed  from  death 
unto  life  ;  if  you  have  been  raised  up  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
quickened  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  for  that  is  the  only  life 
that  will  stand  before  God.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
whitewashing  men  up  and  passing  them  off  as  Christians. 
That  isn't  the  work  of  God.  God  begins  at  the  heart, 
and  cleanses  that  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Now,  in  the  six- 
teenth verse  of  the  fifth  chapter  of  Galatians  it  says: 
"This  I  say  then,  walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall  not 
fulfill  the  lusts  of  the  flesh."  And  in  the  next  verse  :  "  For 
the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against 
the  flesh  ;  and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other, 
so  that  ye  cannot  do  the  things  that  ye  would." 

There  is  a  conflict  between  the  old  man  and  the  new 
one,  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit.  They  are  at  war 
with  each  other  and  will  be  to  the  end  of  time.  Someone 
has  said  that  there  is  always  a  devil  at  our  right  hand  ; 
though  if  we  resist  the  devil  he  will  flee  from  us.  But  it 
is  different  with  the  flesh  ;  the  flesh  cleaves  to  us.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  flesh  is  the  worst  enemy  we  have.  "  Hut  if 
ye  be  led  of  the  Spirit,  ye  are  not  under  the  law.  Now 
the  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which  are  these,  adul- 
tery, fornication,  uncleanness.lasciviousness,  idolatry,  witch- 
craft, hatred,  variance,  emulations,  wrath,  strife,  seditions, 
heresies,  envyings,  murders,  drunkenness,  revellings,  ami 
such  like:  of  the  which  I  tell  you  before,  as  I  have  also 
told  you  in  time  past,  that  they  which  do  such  things 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Let   us  put  the  question  right  to  ourselves  :     Are  we 
bringing  forth  this  k^nd  of  fruit  ?     Are  we  full  of  jealousy 


390       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

envy,  drunkenness,  revellings,  and  such  like?  Recollect 
what  the  word  says :  "  They  which  do  such  things  shall 
not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  I  know  a  great  many 
men  who  stand  by  and  say  that  they  can  get  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  whether  they  are  born  again  of  the  Spirit 
or  not,  and  do  these  prohibited  things,  but  they  make  the 
same  mistake  as  those  who  have  heretofore  disobeyed 
God's  law,  for  he  has  said  that  men  who  do  "  such  things 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Now  we  come  to  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit :  love,  joy, 
peace.  Delicious  fruit,  isn't  it  ?  You  can't  make  a  bad 
tree  bring  forth  good  fruit ;  but  if  the  tree  is  a  good  one 
it  will  certainly  bear  good  fruit ;  it  can't  help  it.  And 
so,  if  a  man's  heart  is  right,  his  life  will  be  right.  "  The 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-sufifering,  gentle- 
ness, goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance  :  against  such 
there  is  no  law."  If  we  live  in  the  Spirit,  let  us  walk  in  the 
Spirit.  Somebody  has  said  that  you  might  just  sum  up 
the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  in  one  word — love.  Love  covers  it 
all,  covers  all  those  nine  things,  "  Love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temper- 
ance." The  same  person  has  put  it  in  this  way  :  "Joy  is 
only  love  exulting,  love  just  bubbling  up  in  our  hearts  ; 
peace  is  love  in  repose,  love  resting  ;  long-suffering  is  love 
untiring,  the  temper  of  those  full,of  the  Spirit ;  gentleness 
is  love  in  society,  the  way  we  act ;  our  gentler  goodness  is 
love  in  action  ;  faith  is  love  on  the  battle-field  ;  meekness 
is  love  at  school ;  temperance  is  love  in  training."  So 
really  you  can  sum  it  all  up  in  the  word  "love,"  "the  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  is  love,"  LOVE. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.   391 


ASSURANCE. 
Among  the  different  classes  of  persons  which  we  meet 
in  the  inquiry  room  are  Church  members  who  are  not 
sure  they  are  saved,  and  a  great  many  Christian  workers 
think  if  a  person  is  a  Church  member  that  is  all  that  is 
needed,  and  so  they  leave  these  doubting  ones,  thinking  it 
isn't  proper  to  labor  with  them. 

Many  Christians  live  in  Doubting  Castle  ;  it  is  a 
very  popular  place,  especially  in  this  country.  You  may 
ask  them  if  they  are  saved,  and  they  turn  their  back,  and 
scowl,  and  say,  "  Well,  I  wouldn't  dare  to  say  I  am  saved  ; 
that  would  be  presumption  ;  I  hope  I  am.  I  trust  I  may 
be."  I  have  noticed  that  persons  who  held  those  views 
were  not  fit  to  work  in  the  inquiry  room  ;  they  were  not 
ready  to  point  the  way  of  salvation  to  others. 

If  you  have  a  hope  according  to  the  Bible  you  have 
something  that  is  sure.  We  believe  in  the  resurrection  ; 
that  is  something  that  is  going  to  take  place  :  but,  strange- 
ly enough,  some  of  us  don't  believe  in  our  own  salvation, 
which  has  already  taken  place. 

If  you  will  turn  to  your  Bibles  you  will  find  that  it  is 
the  privilege  of  every  child  of  God  to  know  that  he  is 
saved.  We  haven't  got  to  go  through  this  world  in  ter- 
rible anxiety  to  know  whether  we  are  saved  or  not :  that 
isn't  the  teaching  of  the  word  of  God.  The  First  Epistle 
of  John  is  a  very  good  book  on  assurance  ;  if  persons 
would  read  that  carefully  and  prayerfully  on  their  knees 
about  once  a  day,  they  would  soon  find  out  whether  they 
were  saved  or  not.     John   had  a  motive  for  writing  that 


392      Moody:  His  Words — Work — Workers. 

epistle.  You  know  he  tells  us  what  he  writes  this  for. 
He  says  :  "  These  things  have  I  written  unto  you  that 
believe  on  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  ye  may  know 
that  ye  have  eternal  life,  and  that  ye  may  believe  on  the 
name  of  the  Son  of  God."  That  yc  may  know  !  Now, 
if  there  are  any  Christians  here  to-day  who  have  not  God's 
assurance — don't  know  that  they  are  saved — let  them 
remember  that  it  is  the  privilege  of  every  child  of  God  to 
know ;  and  instead  of  its  being  presumption  to  know  that 
we  are  saved,  it  is  presumption  not  to  know  that  we  are 
saved.  If  we  have  really  been  born  of  the  Spirit,  it  is 
presumption  for  us  to  say  that  God  has  not  settled  it. 
Just  look  into  that  Epistle  of  John  and  you  will  find  that 
he  gives  you  the  test  whereby  you,  can  measure  yourself, 
and  find  out  whether  you  are  a  child  of  God  or  not.  He 
puts  it  so  plain  that  you  need  not  make  any  mistake. 

In  the  third  chapter  ©f  the  first  Epistle  General  of 
John  there  are  six  things  worth  knowing.  In  the  fifth 
Verse  are  these  words :  "  And  ye  know  that  he  was  mani- 
fested to  take  away  our  sins  ;  and  in  him  is  no  sin."  Now 
if  he  has  taken  our  sins  away  that  is  the  end  of  them. 
They  need  not  trouble  us  any  more.  The  second  thing 
worth  knowing  is  in  the  nineteenth  verse:  "And  hereby 
we  know  that  we  are  of  the  truth  and  shall  assure  our 
hearts  before  him."  The  Spirit  of  God  bears  witness 
with  our  spirit  that  we  are  born  of  God  ;  we  know  that 
what  we  believe  is  true.  We  know  God's  work  ;  there  is 
no  uncertainty  about  it.  The  third  thing  is  in  the  four- 
teenth verse  :  "  We  know  that  we  have  passed  from  death 
unto  life,  because  we  love  the  brethren.  He  that  loveth 
not  his   brother  abideth  in  death."     There  is  no  uncer- 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— Tin-:  Holy  Spirit.   393 

tainty  about  it.  We  know.  And  if  there  is  any  person  in 
this  house  who  professes  to  be  a  Christian  and  don't  know 
it,  let  him  before  he  sleeps  find  it  out,  and  it  will  bring  joy 
to  his  soul.  The  fourth  thing  is  in  the  fifteenth  verse  : 
"Whosoever  hateth  his  brother  is  a  murderer:  and  ye 
know  that  no  murderer  hath  eternal  life  abiding  in  him." 
If  our  heart  is  full  of  hatred  we  know  we  have  not  passed 
from  death  unto  life  ;  there  is  no  doubt  about  it.  The 
fifth  thing  worth  knowing  is  in  the  twenty-fourth  verse : 
"And  he  that  keepeth  his  commandments  dwelleth  in  him 
and  he  in  him.  And  hereby  we  know  that  he  abideth  in 
us,  by  the  Spirit  which  he  hath  given  us."  The  last  and 
sixth  thing  is  grace.  I  think  a  great  many  Christians  live 
on  dry  doctrine,  and  never  come  to  have  a  real,  personal 
relationship  with  Christ.  If  we  have  Christ  formed  in  us, 
the  hope  of  glory,  we  know  that  we  have  the  Spirit  born 
in  us.  "Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God."  Isn't 
that  worth  knowing  ? 

Take  up  your  Bibles  and  study  the  doctrine  of  as- 
surance, and  you  will  find  Job  saying,  "  I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth."  It  is  the  privilege  of  every  child 
of  God  to  know  this  ;  and  if  there  are  any  Christians 
here  that  don't  know  it,  I  advise  them  to  have  an  early 
conference  with  some  warm-hearted  Christian  who  has 
this  assurance,  and  get  it  for  themselves.  And  let  the 
workers  in  the  inquiry  room  take  out  their  Bibles  and 
point  out  the  right  passages  to  all  inquirers  after  assur- 
ance in  Christ,  for  it  is  a  part  of  our  duty  to  help  doubt- 
ing Christians  into  this  position  of  grace  and  power. 
17* 


394      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


THE  INSPIRER  OF  PROPHECY  AND  PRAYER. 
Another  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  prophecy.  "He 
will  show  you  things  to  come."  Newspapers  don't  tell  you 
half  the  news  ;  they  tell  you  what  has  taken  place  ;  but 
this  Bible  is  the  only  newsbook  that  tells  you  what  is  go- 
ing to  take  place.  The  natural  man  cannot  understand 
spiritual  things  ;   only  he  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit. 

Some  people  do  not  believe  in  the  supernatural  working 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  souls  of  men,  but  every  man 
and  every  woman  has  sometime  or  other  felt  his  influence 
and  power.  When  the  Holy  Ghost  first  opened  my  eyes, 
I  thought  how  blind  I  had  been  !  That  is  the  way  with 
the  world  ;  it  is  blind,  but  doesn't  know  it.  The  Holy 
Ghost  knows  all  the  secrets  of  heaven,  and  it  reveals  to  us 
the  things  that  are  important  for  us  to  know. 

Another  thing  he  does  for  us  is  to  inspire  our  prayers. 
He  knows  what  God  has  for  us,  and  he  teaches  us  to  ask 
it.  One  reason  why  our  prayers  are  not  answered  is,  be- 
cause they  are  made  after  the  flesh  ;  because  we  haven't 
been  taught  by  the  Spirit  how  to  pray.  O  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  may  teach  us  how  to  pray !  that  every  prayer  we 
make  may  be  inspired  by  the  Spirit !  then  we  will  have 
power  in  prayer  with  God,  the  blessings  will  come  ;  our 
prayers  will  not  go  unanswered.  Let  us  bow  our  heads, 
and  ask  that  the  Spirit  may  teach  each  one  of  us  how  to 
pray. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    395 


THE  SWORD  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 
We  find  in  Ephesians  vi,  17,  these  words:  "And   take 
the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which 
is  the  word  of  God." 

If  we  don't  know  how  to  use  a  sword  what  is  the  good 
of  it  ?  We  may  have  the  word,  but  if  we  haven't  the  Spirit 
of  God  and  are  not  taught  by  the  Spirit  of  God  how  to 
handle  the  word  we  don't  accomplish  our  work.  But  if 
the  word  of  God  is  hid  in  our  hearts,  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
teaches  us  how  to  use  it,  then  it  is  that  the  word  is  sharper 
than  a  two-edged  sword.  If  we  can  only  just  get  hold  of 
this  word  in  our  prayer-meetings  and  in  our  churches,  we 
shall  become  a  living  power. 

What  are  ten  thousand  soldiers  good  for  if  they  don't 
know  how  to  use  their  weapons  ?  An  army  of  five  hun- 
dred, or  even  one  hundred,  could  rout  ten  thousand  if 
they  didn't  know  how  to  use  their  arms.  Let  us  have  the 
spirit  of  this  word,  and  if  we  understand  it  "fram  back  to 
back"  we  can  meet  these  infidels  who  talk  so  loud  against 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  People  talk  about  studying  books 
to  meet  them  !  All  the  book  you  want  is  the  word  of 
God.  God  will  come  forth  out  of  his  own  book  and  con- 
found them. 

You  can't  meet  men  with  your  opinion.  Give  up  your 
opinions  and  just  give  them  the  word  of  God.  He  will 
take  care  of  his  word.  It  will  cut  down  deep.  They  may 
fight  and  kick,  and  talk  and  swear,  but  just  give  them  the 
word  and  the  Spirit  will  do  his  own  work.  I  have  seen 
men  come  into  the  inquiry  room  just  to  talk  and  discuss, 


396       Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

and  get  up  an  argument.  Some  men  live  on  argument. 
Well,  I  generally  take  the  Bible  and  give  them  a  few  verses. 
"  But,"  they  say,  "  I  don't  believe  the  Bible."  Then  I  give 
them  more  verses,  and  they  say  the  same  thing,  but  I  just 
keep  on  giving  them  the  word  of  God.  I  am  no  match  for 
infidels,  but  this  word  is  ;  this  word  tells  all  about  them. 
There  have  been  infidels  for  six  thousand  years,  and  prob- 
ably will  be  until  the  millennium  ;  but,  thank  God  !  there 
wont  be  any  then.  The  only  way  to  meet  infidels  is  to 
meet  them  with  the  word  of  God ;  then  they  have  got  to 
settle  all  questions  with  the  Spirit  himself. 


THE  BAPTISM  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  FOR  SERVICE. 
In  some  sense,  and  to  some  extent,  the  Holy  Spirit 
dwells  with  every  believer;  but  there  is  another  gift, 
which  may  be  called  the  gift  of  the  Ho4y  Spirit  for 
service.  This  gift,  it  strikes  me,  is  entirely  distinct  and 
separate  from  conversion  and  assurance.  God  has  a  great 
many  children  that  have  no  power,  and  the  reason  is, 
they  have  not  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for  service. 
God  doesn't  seem  to  work  with  them,  and  I  believe  it  is 
because  they  have  not  sought  this  gift. 

In  the  opening  of  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Luke  we 
find  the  disciples  asking  Christ  to  teach  them  how  to 
pray.  After  doing  so  he  goes  on  to  explain  it,  and  in 
the  ninth,  tenth,  and  thirteenth  verses  says  :  "  And  I  say 
unto  you,  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you;  seek,  and  ye 
shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  For 
every  one  that  asketh  receiveth.  ...  If  ye  then,  being 
evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children  ; 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Spirit,    397 

how  much  more  shall  your  heavenly  Father  give  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him  !" 

Now  the  lesson  to  be  learned  from  this  is,  that  we 
must  pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit  for  service;  pray  that  we 
may  be  anointed  and  qualified  to  do  the  work  that  God 
has  for  us  to  do.  I  believe  that  Elisha  was  a  child  of 
God  before  Elijah  met  him  ;  but  he  was  not  qualified  for 
the  work  of  a  prophet  until  the  spirit  of  Elijah  came 
upon  him.  We  have  to  ask  for  this  blessing,  to  knock 
for  it,  to  seek  for  it,  and  find  out  why  it  does  not  come. 
If  we  regard  iniquity  in  our  hearts,  if  we  have  some  hid- 
den sin,  God  is  not  going  to  give  us  the  baptism  of  power. 
We  are  not  as  "  an  empty  vessel ; "  we  are  not  ready  to 
receive  the  blessing,  and  so  it  doesn't  come. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  Luke  we  find  that  Christ  was 
baptized  by  the  Holy  Ghost  before  he  entered  upon  his 
ministry.  This  should  teach  us  to  get  anointed  before 
starting  out  to  do  the  Lord's  work.  Christ  was  the  Son 
of  God  just  as  much  before  his  baptism  as  afterward, 
but  even  he  needed  this  power;  and  if  the  Son  of  God, 
who  never  had  sinned,  needed  it,  how  much  more  do  we 
need  it,  and  how  hopeless  it  will  be  if  we  attempt  to 
work  before  we  get  it. 

I  generally  divide  the  Church  into  three  classes.  The 
first  we  find  in  the  third  chapter  of  John.  They  are  like 
Nicodemus.  They  have  come  to  Christ  and  got  life. 
Nicodemus  got  life  and  that  was  all ;  he  didn't  get  the 
moral  courage  to  testify;  and  a  great  many  Christians 
are  just  like  him.  They  work  their  way  up  to  Christ, 
and  are  satisfied  with  mere  conversion  ;  the}-  don't  go  on 
and  get  the  baptism  of  power.     The  Church  is  lumbered 


39§      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

up  with  that  kind  of  material,  making  it  into  a  kind  of 
religious  hospital  instead  of  a  Christian  camp. 

The  next  class  is  to  be  found  in  the  fourth  chapter 
of  John.  The  woman  there  mentioned  met  Christ  at 
the  well  and  got  one  draught  of  the  living  water,  and 
she  went  and  published  the  fact  of  Christ's  presence  and 
what  he  had  done  for  her  to  the  whole  town.  That  is  a 
better  class  than  the  other :  they  have  got  so  far  along 
that  they  can  testify  for  Christ. 

But  there  is  still  a  better  class.  In  the  seventh  chapter 
of  John  we  find  it  written,"  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come 
unto  me,  and  drink.  He  that  believeth  on  me,  as  the 
Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of 
living  water."     This  is  the  kind  of  Christians  we  want. 

In  this  country  we  have  two  ways  of  digging  wells. 
One,  as  you  who  have  lived  in  the  country  know,  is  to 
dig  until  we  come  to  water;  then  to  stone  it  up,  put  in  a 
pump,  and  pump  up  the  water.  Now,  many  Christians 
are  just  like  that.  They  keep  on  pumping  and  pumping, 
and  their  preaching  and  praying  is  all  hard  and  forced. 
But  there  is  another  way  of  making  a  well.  You  bore 
down  through  the  gravel,  and  sand,  and  clay,  down, 
down,  till  you  strike  the  lower  strata,  and  then  up  comes 
the  water,  a  hundred  feet  high.  That  is  the  Artesian 
well  ;  and  the  Christians  we  want  are  those  who  are  like 
Artesian  wells.  People  say,  sometimes,  they  wonder  some 
hard-working  men  don't  break  down.  Well,  it  is  a  won- 
der that  those  who  are  pumping  all  the  time  don't  break 
down  ;  but  there  is  no  fear  of  the  Artesian-well  people 
becoming  exhausted.  Let  us  have  a  few  Christija^s,  of 
this  class  here  and  we  shall  soon  feel  their  influence. 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holv  Spirit.    399 

If  we  seek  for  this  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  we  shall  find 
it.  God  wants  us  to  have  it;  and  when  we  are  filled 
with  the  Spirit  every  body  around  us  will  feel  our  influ- 
ence. We  shall  then  have  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  humility, 
and  meekness  instead  of  going  around  scolding  people : 
that  isn't  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Agai-n,  those  who  really  have  it  don't  talk  much  about 
it.  They  let  other  people  find  it  out.  Nothing  makes  a 
man  who  is  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit  so  mortified  as  to 
have  people  talk  about  him :  all  he  himself  thinks  about 
is  to  exalt  Christ.  That  is  the  only  way  to  reach  the 
world— holding  up  Christ  to  the  people,  and  not  trying 
to  draw  the  people  to  yourselves.  If  you  have  the  bap- 
tism of  power  they  will  find  it  out  without  any  procla- 
mation on  your  part. 

In  the  twentieth  chapter  of  John  we  are  told  of  the 
disciples  receiving  the  Holy  Ghost.  How  much  do  you 
suppose  those  early  Christians  would  have  accomplished 
if  they  had  gone  out  preaching  before  the  power  came  ? 

The  rank  and  file  of  the  Church  need  this  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  just  as  much  as  the  preachers.  A  woman 
with  ten  children  to  take  care  of  needs  it  just  as  much  as 
any  body.  A  man  harassed  with  business  needs  it ;  there 
isn't  a  child  of  God  on  earth  but  needs  it. 

We  read  further  on,  "And  they  were  all  filled  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues." 
You  have  noticed  men  who,  when  they  stood  up  in  the 
pulpit,  seemed  to  speak  with  a  new  tongue.  These  same 
men  used  to  speak  with  great  eloquence  and  fluency, 
but  it  was  like  "sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal;" 
nobody  was  ever  reached  by  it.     If  the  preachers  in  this 


400      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

city  were  anointed  with  this  power  how  much  good  they 
might  do  !  This  whole  country  would  soon  come  under 
their  influence. 

I  believe  this  gift  for  service  is  a  thing  that  the  Church 
has  mislaid.  Conversion  is  one  thing,  and  this  is  an- 
other, distinct  and  separate.  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
Church  has  laid  it  aside,  and  the  result  is.  that  hundreds 
and  thousands  come  into  the  Church  without  even  seek- 
ing this  power.  Others,  again,  say  they  have  this  bless- 
ing because  they  received  it  ten  years  ago.  They  live 
on  that,  and  seem  to  forget  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
losing  it.  How  many  men  can  you  remember  who  did 
mighty  work  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago  who  have  none  of 
the  power  now?  They  preached  with  unction  from 
Heaven,  and  the  blessing  of  God  rested  upon  their 
labors ;  but  they  have  lost  the  power.  They  have  for- 
gotten the  great  truth,  that  we  must  keep  going  to  the 
Fountain-head  to  get  filled.  We  must  have  fresh  sup- 
plies. We  don't  get  enough  of  Christ  at  once  to  carry 
us  through  life.  The  manna  came  down  fresh  six  days 
a  week,  but  it  wouldn't  keep:  and  the  reason  we  have 
so  many  lean,  half-starved  Christians  is,  because  they 
live  on  stale  manna. 

We  are  leaky  vessels  and  lose  the  power.  We  find 
that  the  disciples  were  several  times  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  we  should  profit  by  their  experience. 

Hundreds  of  men  lose  the  power  without  knowing  it, 
and  they  go  on  with  their  forms  of  preaching,  and  are 
astonished  at  their  want  of  success.  A  minister  came  to 
me  to-day  and  asked,  "  How  can  I  keep  free,  and  not  be 
trammeled  when   I   attempt  to  preach?"     If  a  man   is 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    401 

filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  he  isn't  trammeled  ;  he  has 
perfect  freedom.  Jeremiah  said  the  Lord  gave  him  a 
forehead  of  brass,  ami  he  went  before  the  king  as  fear- 
lessly as  before  a  peasant.  When  a  man  is  filled  with 
God  he  don't  care  about  public  opinion  ;  he  is  simply 
a  mouthpiece  to  declare  the  word  and  will  of  God.  "  A 
trumpet  isn't  afraid  of  its  own  sound." 

I  remember  many  a  time  I  have  gone  from  one  place 
to  another,  and  I  have  said,  "  God  gave  me  success  in 
that  place,  and  now  I  shall  have  the  same  here."  I  have 
tried  to  carry  on  the  work  with  the  former  grace  and  failed 
utterly,  and  I  found  I  had  to  come  right  back  and  get 
fresh  .power.  I  believe  that  for  every  work  we  have  to 
do  for  God  we  should  get  new  power.  The  strength  God 
gave  me  for  Chicago  wont  do  for  Boston.  I  must  have 
a  fresh  supply  for  the  meetings  here. 

When  a  man  is  thirsty  he  wants  water,  and  so  when 
Christians  are  thirsty  they  want  the  Holy  Spirit  above 
every  thing  else.  The  trouble  at  present  is,  there  is  not 
enough  thirst  among  Christians.  A  man  came  to  me 
the  other  day  and  said  his  pastor  was  troubled  about 
something,  and  was  in  great  distress.  "Well,"  said  I, 
"let  him  alone,  he  is  all  right  ;  he  is  thirsty,  and  going 
to  get  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit." 

Paul  went  down  to  Ephesus  and  found  some  men  there 
preaching  the  Gospel,  and  he  said  unto  them  :  "  Have  ye 
received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  believed?"  That  is 
certainly  a  strange  question  if  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
receiving  it  after  conversion.  It  may  be  that  I  am  wrong, 
but  I  wish  you  would  take  your  Bibles  and  see  it  this  is 
so  ;  and  if  it  is,  then  seek  this  gift.     Letters  come  in  from 


402      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

all  over  the  country  asking  us  to  send  men  here  and 
there.  If  we  had  a  number  of  men  anointed  we  might 
send  them  out  as  they  were  sent  out  from  Jerusalem  ; 
but  there  is  no  use  of  sending  out  men  who  are  not  bap- 
tized for  service. 

When  I  first  went  to  Scotland  I  was  a  little  troubled 
about  my  theology,  for  fear  it  wouldn't  jibe  with  theirs. 
I  hadn't  my  forehead  covered  with  brass  then.  At  one  of 
the  early  meetings  I  saw  one  man  with  his  head  covered 
with  his  hands,  and  I  thought  he  was  mortified  about  my 
theology.  When  the  meeting  was  over  he  grabbed  his 
hat,  and  away  he  went.  I  gave  him  up,  and  thought  he 
wouldn't  come  again.  He  was  absent  the  next  few  days  ; 
but  one  day  he  came  to  the  prayer-meeting,  and  there 
was  such  a  change  in  him  that  I  scarcely  knew  him. 
He  then  said  he  was  thoroughly  convinced  that  what  I 
had  said  was  true  ;  that  he  felt  he  had  been  preaching 
without  the  power,  and  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  <ret  it:  so  he  went  and  locked  himself  in  his  closet, 
and  God  revealed  himself  to  his  soul. 

It  was  not  a  month  before  the  people  couldn't  get 
into  that  man's  church.  I  met  him  before  I  sailed  for 
this  country,  and  he  told  me  that  he  hadn't  preached  a 
sermon  since  without  some  one  being  converted. 

Mr.  Moody  then  gave  the  following  summary  of  the  passages 
bearing  on  this  question  : — Luke  iv :  Jesus  was  filled  with  the  Spirit, 
and  resisted  and  overcame  the  devil ;  so  every  one  filled  with  the 
Spirit  would  overcome  the  devil.  Acts  i,  8 :  The  disciples  received  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  then  witnessed  for  Jesus.  Acts  ii,  4 :  "  And  they 
were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  began  to  speak  with  other 
tongues."  Acts  iv,  8,  and  Acts  iv,  31  :  "  They  were  all  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  they  spake  the  word  of  God  with  boldness."  Acts 
vi,  5-10:  Stephen  was  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  no  man  could 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Spirit.   403 

resist  his  wisdom.  Acts  ix,  17,  20,  22:  Paul  was  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  preached  Christ.  Acts  xi :  Barnabas  was  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  many  people  were  added  to  the  Church. 
Acts  xiii,  52  :  The  disciples  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  j^reat 
multitudes  believed.     He  then  concluded  as  follows : — 

And  there  will  be  great  multitudes  believing  in  this  city 
if  we  get  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  My  friends,  shall 
we  seek  this  power?  How  many  hearts  here  are  crying 
for  this  fresh  anointing  ?  Let  it  be  a  solemn  question 
between  you  and  God.  How  many  want  this  new 
power?  Shall  we  just  stand  before  God  and  ask  him 
for  this  blessing?  [About  one  half  the  audience  rose.] 
Let  us  send  up  one  united  prayer  that  God  will  empty 
us  of  every  thing  contrary  to  his  will,  and  fill  us  to-day 
with  the  Holy  Ghost;  that  we  may  be  like  Barnabas  and 
Stephen,  and  the  holy  Christians  that  did  such  wonderful 
things  in  the  early  days. 


EMBLEMS  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 
I  SAW  some  time  ago  a  list  of  what  were  termed  the 
emblems  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  I  copied  the  proposi- 
tions. 

Water — Cleansing,  everlasting,  refreshing,  abundant, 
freely  given. 

There  were  some  men  who  went  to  Africa — I  think- 
there  was  a  colony  wanted  to  settle.  They  went  to  one 
place,  but  were  told  that  there  was  no  water  there  ;  then 
they  went  to  another,  but  found  no  water.  At  last  they 
came  to  a  place  where  the  inhabitants  said  the  clouds 
were  pierced  above  them,  and  there  they  made  their  set- 
tlement.    Let  us  see  that  we  get  under  the  pierced  clouds 


404      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

and  have  the  Spirit  of  God  coming  upon  us  Let  us  all 
come  under  this  outpouring  of  grace. 

Then  comes  FIRE  as  an  emblem  of  the  Holy  Ghost- 
illuminating,  brilliant,  stirring.  WIND  —  independent, 
powerful,  unseen  except  by  its  effects.  Oil  —  healing 
and  comforting.  Rain  and  DEW — fertilizing,  refreshing, 
penetrating,  abundant.  A  DOVE  —  gentle,  meek,  inno- 
cent, forgiving.  A  VOICE — speaking,  guiding,  warning. 
A  SEAL — impressing,  securing. 

Let  us  pray  that  each  one  of  us  may  be  endowed  with 
the  Holy  Spirit  from  this  day  and  hour. 


GRIEVING   THE   HOLY   SPIRIT. 

"AND  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye 
are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption."  Bear  in  mind 
these  words  were  written  to  the  Church  at  Ephesus.  A 
great  many  have  got  the  idea  that  it  is  the  unconverted 
that  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit;  but  here  it  certainly  is 'the 
Church.  To  be  sure,  a  man  that  resists  the  Holy  Ghost 
may  grieve  him  by  not  letting  him  into  his  heart ;  but 
this  was  written  to  the  Church. 

Again,  "  Let  all  bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  anger,  and 
clamor,  and  evil  speaking,  be  put  away  from  you,  with 
all  malice."  This  forbids  Church  quarrels.  The  Master 
knows  that  after  the  devil  gets  into  the  Church  the  Holy 
Ghost  cannot  work.  That  is  one  way  in  which  Christians 
grieve  the  Holy  Ghost  by  quarreling  among  themselves. 

"And  be  ye  kind  one  to  another,  tender-hearted,  for- 
giving one  another,  even  as  God  for  Christ's  sake  hath 
forgiven  you."     Now  if  we  grieve  the  Spirit  he  cannot 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Spirit.    405 

work  through  us  and  use  us.    This  is  also  an  admonition 
given  to  the  Church. 

Another  way  that  we  grieve  the  Spirit  is  by  being 
yoked  up  with  ungodly  people.  We  want  to  be  sepa- 
rated. There  was  a  time  when  there  was  danger  of  the 
Church  going  over  into  the  world,  but  I  don't  think 
there  is  so  much  danger  of  that  now  as  of  the  devil  and 
the  world  coming  into  the  Church.  Why,  you  see  the 
height  of  the  fashion  in  the  churches !  We  have  even 
got  theatricals  in  a  good  many  of  the  churches!  Now 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  grieved  in  that  way,  by  letting  the 
world  come  into  the  Church. 

There  is  a  great  call  for  more  intellectual  power  in  the 
pulpit ;  but  that  isn't  what  we  need  so  much  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  power.  Where  can  you  find  greater  power  than 
that  which  followed  the  simple  preaching  of  Barnabas  and 
Stephen?  "Why,"  they  say,  "if  the  minister  preaches 
about  the  sins  of  the  Church  he  will  pi-each  the  rich 
people  out  of  doors ;  they  wont  stand  it.  We  must  get 
a  man  that  will  compromise  between  the  Church  and 
God,  and  make  every  body  feel  that  they  arc  all  right." 
They  want  ministers  to  preach  about  the  sins  of  the  old 
patriarchs,  but  not  about  the  sins  of  the  present  day. 
They  are  something  like  a  man  in  Scotland:  An  old 
minister  died,  and  a  young  man  took  the  old  church,  and 
the  first  time  he  preached  he  began  to  bear  down  upon 
the  sins  of  the  congregation.  After  the  service,  the 
sexton,  or  the  beadle  as  they  call  him  there,  took  him 
aside  and  said:  "Young  man,  if  you  want  to  be  popular 
don't  you  speak  about  the  sins  of  the  present  day,  but 
bear  down   hard   on   the   sins   and    the    sinners   of   two 


406      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

thousand  years  ago :  they  will  all  like  you  then,  but  they 
wont  stand  hearing  about  the  sins  of  the  present  day." 

But  if  we  are  going  to  honor  the  Holy  Ghost  we  must 
give  the  message  just  as  God  gives  it  to  us ;  and  if  we 
are  not  willing  that  the  man  we  put  in  the  pulpit  shall 
speak  as  the  Spirit  comes  to  him,  then  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  grieved.  Are  the  Churches  in  New  England  ready 
for  that?  Are  they  ready  that  ministers  should  preach 
the  whole  truth,  if  it  does  cut  to  the  heart  ?  If  a  man 
has  been  defrauding  his  neighbor,  are  they  ready  to  have 
that  man  preached  about,  and  that  sin  brought  to  light? 
When  we  get  sin  out  of  the  Church,  we  shall  have  more 
conversions  in  one  year  than  we  have  had  for  the  last 
fifty  years.  I  know  some  people  think  it  will  drive  away 
the  moneyed  men,  and  that  the  Church  needs  their 
support ;  but  it  will  bring  God  down  into  the  Church, 
and  we  need  him  a  great  deal  more.  We  don't  want 
intellect  and  money  so  much  as  the  power  of  God's 
word  working  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  making 
them  over  anew  :  when  we  have  that  we  shall  see  sinners 
converted. 

How  many  Churches  do  you  think  there  are  in  New 
England  that  have  that  power?  Why,  I  heard  of  a 
Church  in  Chicago  that  haven't  had  a  conversion  for 
eight  years !  Think  of  it !  And  some  one  praying  for 
that  Church  said :  "  Give  it  one  more  chance,  Lord,  be- 
fore you  spew  it  out  of  your  mouth."  I  thought  that 
was  very  appropriate  prayer. 

The  Holy  Spirit  must  be  grieved  when  Christians  can't 
work  with  power.  Let  them  not  talk  about  the  world 
grieving  the   Holy  Spirit,  but  bring  it  home  to  them- 


Outlines  of  Doctrine — The  Holy  Sitrit.    407 

selves.      Are  we  doing  any  thing  to  grieve  the   Holy 
Ghost  that  has  scaled  us  for  the  day  of  redemption  ? 

In  I  Thessalonians,  fifth  chapter  and  nineteenth  verse, 
we  find  these  words:  "Quench  not  the  Spirit."  That 
was  written  to  the  Church.  How  do  we  quench  the 
Spirit?  By  not  being  willing  to  let  the  Spirit  of  God 
lead  us.  We  are  all  the  time  taking  God's  work  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Spirit  into  our  own.  We  quench  it 
by  this  terrible  lukewarmness,  by  this  coldness  and  stiff- 
ness which  has  come  into  the  Church.  Turn  over  to  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Acts,  and  you  will  find  that  he  who  does 
that  resists  the  Holy  Ghost. 


THE  SIN  AGAINST  THE  HOLY  GHOST. 

The  question  has  come  up  (I  often  get  letters  concern- 
ing it)  about  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  don't 
know  how  many  times  I  have  been  asked  to  explain  that 
sin.  A  lady  in  the  inquiry  room  last  night  was  troubled 
on  account  of  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  said 
that  there  was  no  hope  for  her. 

In  Matthew  xii,  31-33,  we  have  these  words:  "Where- 
fore I  say  unto  you,  All  manner  of  sin  and  blasphemy 
shall  be  forgiven  unto  men  :  but  the  blasphemy  against 
the  Holy  Ghost  shall  not  be  forgiven  unto  men.  And 
whosoever  speaketh  a  word  against  the  Son  of  man,  it 
shall  be  forgiven  him  :  but  whosoever  speaketh  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in 
this  world,  neither  in  the  world  to  come." 

Now  people  read  that,  and  just  close  the  Bible,  and 
say,  "  I   did  commit  that  sin,  and  therefore   I   have  no 


408      Moody  :  ms  Words — Work — Workers. 

hope  in  this  world  or  in  the  world  to  come."  Matthew 
really  leaves  us  in  doubt,  but  when  you  turn  to  the  third 
chapter  of  Mark,  you  find  that  Christ  explains  it  himself. 
If  we  would  only  compare  Scripture  with  Scripture  we 
would  get  light  upon  many  things  we  don't  understand. 
No  one  need  go  on  in  the  darkness  about  this  question 
if  they  will  only  look  and  see  what  Christ  said. 

Now  read  Mark  iii,  22-29:  "And  the  scribes  which 
came  down  from  Jerusalem  said,  He  hath  Beelzebub,  and 
by  the  prince  of  the  devils  castcth  he  out  devils.  And 
he  called  them  unto  him,  and  said  unto  them  in  par- 
ables, How  can  Satan  cast  out  Satan?  And  if  a  kingdom 
be  divided  against  itself,  that  kingdom  cannot  stand.  .  .  . 
And  if  Satan  rise  up  against  himself,  and  be  divided,  he 
cannot  stand,  but  hath  an  end.  No  man  can  enter  into 
a  strong  man's  house,  and  spoil  his  goods,  except  he  will 
first  bind  the  strong  man  ;  and  then  he  will  spoil  his 
house.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  All  sins  shall  be  forgiven 
unto  the  sons  of  men,  and  blasphemies  wherewith  soev- 
er they  shall  blaspheme:  But  he  that  shall  blaspheme 
against  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  never  forgiveness,  but  is  in 
danger  of  eternal  damnation." 

Now  people  usually  stop  right  there,  instead  of  read- 
ing on.  The  next  verse,  the  thirtieth,  just  explains  it 
all :  "  Because  they  said,  He  hath  an  unclean  spirit." 
This,  then,  is  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Now  in  all  my  travels  I  have  never  found  a  man  who 
thought  that  Jesus  Christ  was  possessed  of  the  devil. 
And  I  don't  believe  that  any  such  man  ever  lived,  ex- 
cept, perhaps,  some  one  who  had  gone  clean  mad.  Who 
ever  heard   any  body  say  that  Christ   had   an   unclean 


Outlines  of  Doctrine— The  Holy  Spirit.    409 

spirit  or  devil  in  him,  that  helped  him  perform  his 
works;  that  ever  said  he  was  an  agent  of  hell,  or  that  he 
came  from  hell  instead  of  from  heaven,  and  was  only  the 
devil's  instrument?  1  never  heard  of  any  such  thing, 
and  it  is  a  question  in  my  mind  if  any  body  in  Boston 
has  committed  that  sin.  You  may  turn  to  Genesis,  where 
it  says  that  God's  Spirit  will  not  always  strive  with 
man  ;  but  didn't  those  persons  referred  to  live  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years  after  the  Lord  said  that?  Men  may  be 
all  their  life  sinning,  and  die  resisting  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but 
I  think  that  the  Spirit  of  God  strives  with  men  more  or 
less  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  and  the  finally  impeni- 
tent perish  because  they  resist  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
sin  seems  to  be  very  clearly  this :  saying  that  Christ  had 
a  devil  in  him,  and  that  he  performed  his  miracles  by 
the  power  of  the  devil. 

Infidels  are  the  same  to-day  as  ever.  They  don't  be- 
lieve that  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God.  But  the  devils 
believe  it.  They  knew  him  well.  "Art  thou  come 
hither  to  torment  us  before  the  time?"  was  their  cry. 
And  so  I  hope  that  if  any  are  stumbling  over  that  sin 
against  the  Holy  Ghost  they  will  read  that  thirtieth 
verse  of  Mark  and  remember  it :  "  Because  they  said, 
he  hath  an  unclean  spirit."  If  you  really  believe  that 
the  Son  of  God  had  a  devil  in  him,  and  did  all  his  work 
by  the  power  of  the  devil,  I  think  you  are  guilty  of  the 

unpardonable  sin. 
18 


4io      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 


SIN    AND    SALVATION. 

MAN  A  FAILURE. 
"Ye  must  be  born  again." — John  iii,  7. 

fAKE  him  where  you  will,  and  man  has  always  been 
,  a  failure.  He  was  a  failure  in  Eden  and  a  failure  out 
of  it  ;  a  failure  before  the  flood  and  a  failure  after  it;  a 
failure  in  the  wilderness  and  a  failure  in  Canaan.  Hear 
what  David  says  :  "  Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity ;  and 
in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me."  Men  are  slow  to 
find  out  that  none  are  pure  in  the  sight  of  God  ;  but 
the  nearer  they  get  to  him  the  more  they  see  their  own 
sinfulness.  Job  could  argue  with  his  friends  and  make 
himself  out  to  be  a  very  good  man,  a  benevolent  man, 
such  a  man  as  you  would  like  to  have  for  an  elder,  or 
church-warden,  or  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions.  If  there  was  an  endowment  to  be  raised  for 
a  theological  seminary  his  name  would  be  first  on  the  list ; 
but  the  moment  that  God  said  to  him,  "Gird  up  now  thy 
loins  like  a  man  ;  for  I  will  demand  of  thee,  and  answer 
thou  me,"  and  then  began  to  put  him  to  a  few  questions. 
Job  saw  his  sinfulness,  and  cried  out,  "  I  am  vile.  I 
abhor  myself." 

No  man  is  fit  to  come  into  God's  kingdom  till  he  learns 
this  first  letter  of  the  alphabet ;  but  there  are  a  great 
many  who  want  to  begin  with  Z  instead  of  A.  If  a  mar. 
don't  believe  he  is  lost  to  begin  with,  what  does  he  want 
of  a  Gospel  or  a  Saviour  ? 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  411 

Did  any  of  you  ever  go  down  into  a  coal-pit,  fifteen 
hundred  or  two  thousand  feet,  right  down  into  the  bowels 
of  the  earth  ?  If  you  have,  don't  you  know  that  it  would 
be  sheer  madness  to  try  to  climb  up  the  steep  sides  of 
that  shaft  and  so  get  out  of  the  pit  ?  Of  course  you 
couldn't  leap  out  of  it  ;  in  fact,  you  couldn't  get  out  of  it 
at  all  by  yourself.  But  I'll  tell  you  this — you  could  get 
out  of  a  coal-pit  fifteen  hundred  feet  deep  a  good  deal 
quicker  than  you  can  get  out  of  the  pit  that  Adam  took 
you  into.  When  Adam  went  down  he  took  the  whole 
human  family  with  him.  But  the  Lord,  by  means  of  his 
cross,  has  lifted  us  out  of  the  pit  of  ruin. 

Now  who  was  it  to  whom  Christ  said,  "  Ye  must  be  born 
again  ? "  It  was  to  Nicodemus,  as  moral  a  man,  I  pre- 
sume, as  lives  in  the  city  of  Boston.  There  is  not  a  thing 
on  record  against  him.  He  was  a  ruler  of  the  Jews  ;  he 
belonged  to  the  highest  ecclesiastical  court  on  earth  at 
that  time  ;  if  he  lived  now  he  would  be  called  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Nicodemus,  and  we  would  make  him  president  of 
some  theological  seminary — perhaps  £ive  him  a  chair  at 
Andover.  He  was  a  man  who  stood  high,  and  yet  this 
very  man  Christ  said  must  be  born  again. 

I  am  glad  this  was  said  to  Nicodemus  and  not  to  the 
poor  woman  at  the  well,  because  then  the  moral  men 
in  Boston  would  have  said,  "  I  hope  the  revival  will  reach 
all  the  harlots  and  drunkards  in  Boston,  but  we  respect- 
able people  don't  need  it;  O,  no!"  But  if  Nicodemus, 
that  moralist  in  Jerusalem,  needed  to  be  born  again,  so 
does  every  man  in  Boston.  This  idea,  that  you  who  are 
born  in  Boston  don't  need  to  be  born  of  the  Spirit, 
comes  from  the  devil  ;  it  don't  come  from  the  Bible.      /ou 


4i2       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

can't  find  that  anywhere  in  the  Scriptures  ;  the  moralist 
of  Boston  needs  to  be  converted  as  much  as  the  drunk- 
ard. "  Except  ye  be  converted,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God."  "  Except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  like- 
wise perish,"  said  Christ  to  the  moralists  of  his  time.  So 
don't  flatter  yourselves  that  you  are  going  to  get  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  without  being  converted  ;  or  that  the  poor 
harlots  and  drunkards  need  to  be  converted,  and  you 
do  not.  The  moralists  of  this  audience  need  to  be  con- 
verted, for  Christ  said  to  Nicodemus,  "  Except " — put  that 
word  in  there — "  Except  ye  be  born  again,  ye  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God."  Wont  you  just  ask  yourself  the 
question?  Let  it  come  home  to  every  heart  to-night! 
Don't  think,  now,  I  am  speaking  to  the  man  who  is  next 
to  you,  or  the  man  behind  you.  That  is  the  way  minis- 
ters lose  about  half  their  sermons.  People  are  all  the 
time  lending  their  ears  for  some  one  else,  and  saying  :  "  O, 
that  will  hit  somebody  else  ;  that  is  good  for  a  man  behind 
me,"  and  he  passes  it  over  his  shoulder,  and  that  man  over 
his,  and  so  it  goes  oi?t  doors.  Let  it  commence  right  down 
here  to-night,  and  lodge  in  your  hearts,  and  then  let  it  go 
around  all  over  the  platform.  Don't  let  any  one  excuse 
himself  to-night.  Let  us  have  a  heart-searching  time. 
Let  us  ask  God  to  show  us  whether  we  have  been  born  of 
the  Spirit,  because  it  is  a  solemn  question,  a  terribly  solemn 
question  !  "  Except — a  man — be  born — again — he  cannot 
— see — the  kingdom — of  God."  I  wish  I  could  get  you 
to  think  five  minutes  to-night.  Just  forget  the  preaching 
and  the  surroundings,  and  let  the  question  sink  down  into 
your  heart :  "  Have  I  been  converted  ?  Have  I  been  born 
of  the  Spirit  ?" 


Doctrines — Six  and  Salvation.  413 

When  I  was  born,  in  1837,  I  was  born  after  the  flesh, 
with  a  wicked  nature  which  I  had  inherited  all  the  way 
back  from  fallen  Adam  ;  but  when  I  was  born  again,  in 
1856,  then  T  became  a  child  of  God. 

A  Christian  is  the  most  remarkable  thing  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  He  has  two  natures,  the  flesh  nature  and 
the  spiritual  nature  ;  and  these  two  are  at  war,  one  against 
the  other,  until  grace  finally  triumphs  over  nature. 

This  world  is  one  vast  hospital.  Everybody  is  sick  ; 
everybody  needs  a  physician  ;  but,  thanks  be  unto  God  ! 
there  is  the  great  Physician,  who  is  able  to  cure  all  dis- 
eases of  soul  and  body. 

I  heard  of  a  young  man,  a  surgeon  in  Belfast,  who  used 
to  go  into  the  hospitals,  and  when  he  found  a  wounded 
man,  and  was  making  ready  to  operate  upon  him,  he  would 
say  to  him  :  "  Look  at  your  wound,  take  a  good  look  at  it ;" 
and  when  he  had  come  to  realize  what  a  bad,  dangerous 
wound  it  was,  he  would  say,  "  Now  look  at  me  :"  and  then 
he  would  begin  to  cut. 

That  is  the  way  with  Christ,  the  great  physician.  He 
wants  us  to  take  a  good  look  at  our  sick,  sinful  souls,  and 
then  he  wants  us  to  stop  looking  at  ourselves  and  our 
sins,  and  look  straight  at  him.  Not  one  here,  another 
there,  and  another  somewhere  else,  but  whosoever  believ- 
eth  shall  be  saved..  God  wants  every  one  of  his  children 
in  heaven.  Somebody  will  say,  Why,  that  is  Universalism. 
Yes,  the  offer  of  salvation  is  a  universal  offer.  "Jesus 
Christ,  by  the  grace  of  God,  tasted  death  for  every  man." 

All  you  want  to  prove  is.  that  you  were  born  into  this 
world,  and  I  will  prove  to  you  that  you  have  a  Saviour.     If 


4T4      Moody:  His  Words— Work— Workers. 

you  were  born  in  the  moon,  or  some  of  the  planets,  I 
don't  know  how  the  case  may  be  ;  but  if  you  are  human,  if 
you  are  flesh  and  blood,  you  may  be  born  again,  born 
of  the  Spirit  into  everlasting  life. 


"TEKEL." 
"Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting." — Dan.  v,  27. 

After  briefly  reciting  the  single  scene  from  the  life  of  king  Belshaz- 
zar—-the  record  of  his  one  night  of  idolatrous  feasting  and  revelry, 
wherein  he  and  a  thousand  of  his  lords  drank  wine  out  of  the  holy 
vessels  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  which  his  father  had  brought  from 
the  temple  of  Jehovah  in  Jerusalem,  praising  the  gods  of  silver  and 
gold— Mr.  Moody  pictured  the  fear  of  the  king  as  the  writing  ap- 
peared ;  the  interpretation  thereof  by  Daniel  ;  the  entry  of  Cyrus 
and  his  army  that  very  night,  and  the  death  of  Belshazzar. — He 
then  made  the  thrilling  proposition  to  weigh  all  the  souls  then  present 
in  the  balance  of  God's  judgment,  to  see  if  they  were  not  "  Tekel," 
like  the  wretched  Belshazzar. 

Men  cavil  now  at  God's  word,  and  think  themselves  good 
enough  to  be  saved  without  Christ ;  but  when  the  judgment 
comes  their  view  of  themselves  will  be  altogether  differ- 
ent. Suppose  God  were  to  give  us  notice  that  we  were, 
every  man  and  woman  in  this  Tabernacle,  to  be  weighed 
to-night  in  his  balance,  suspended  from  his  throne  in 
heaven  and  dropped  down  here  before  us,  how  many  of  you 
would  be  ready  to  be  weighed  ? 

Sinner,  are  you  ready  to  be  weighed  on  God's  scales  ? 
What  shall  we  have  to  weigh  with  ?  The  law  of  God. 
"  O,"  says  some  one,  "  1  don't  want  to  be  weighed  by  the 
law  :  that  is  gone  by  ;  we  are  not  living  now  under  the 
law."  But  what  does  Christ  say  about  it  ?  "  Think  not 
that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  and  the  prophets.     I 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  415 

am  not  come  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill."  "Till  heaven 
and  earth  pass  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise 
pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled."  Some  men  don't 
like  the  ten  commandments  ;  they  prefer  the  sermon 
on  the  mount.  Ah,  my  friends,  the  standard  of  the  sermon 
on  the  mount  is  infinitely  higher  than  the  ten  command- 
ments. Well,  now,  are  you  ready?  Step  in,  then,  and 
be  weighed. 

I  have  heard  some  men  say,  "If  I  keep  the  com- 
mandments I  don't  need  any  Christ."  That  is  true  ; 
but  if  there  is  man  or  woman  here  to-night  that  has  never 
broken  the  ten  commandments  let  them  step  in  and 
be  weighed. 

Here  is  the  first  commandment,  [taking  up  a  piece 
of  paper,]  and  we  will  suppose  it  is  a  weight  like  those 
little  pieces  of  iron  which  they  use  for  weights  in  com- 
mon scales :  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  Gods  before 
me."  I  will  drop  this  into  one  scale,  while  you  are  in  the 
other,  [dropping  it  on  the  reading  desk.]  Have  you  no 
other  gods  before  the  Lord  ?  your  wife — your  children — 
pleasure — wealth — honor  ?  Do  you  worship  God  before 
all  things  ?  Do  you  love  him  and  worship  him  more  than 
every  other  thing  or  being  ?  Ah,  I  see  you  are  too  light ; 
the  scale  flies  up  with  you.  You  are  "Tekel" — weighed 
in  the  balance,  and  found  wanting. 

Take  another  weight  with  the  second  commandment 
written  on  it  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven 
image.  .  .  .  Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to  them,  nor 
serve  them."  O  yes,  says  one  ;  I  can  be  weighed  with 
that  commandment.  But  how  many  of  you  worship  some 
idol  ?     It  may  not  be  in  the  form  of  a  graven  image,  it 


416     Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

may  be  money,  business,  self.  Now  let  me  put  in  this 
weight  also,  [dropping  the  second  paper  with  the  first,] 
for  it  is  not  with  one,  but  with  all  the  commandments 
that  you  must  be  weighed  in  God's  scales. 

How  God's  law  goes  down  against  you  ! 

Here  is  a  weight  with  the  third  commandment  writ- 
ten on  it  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord 
thy  God  in  vain."  Young  man,  have  you  taken  God's 
name  in  vain  to-day  ?  Hear  this  :  "  For  the  Lord  will  not 
hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain."  I  don't 
suppose  men  would  think  of  taking  God's  name  in  vain 
if  he  had  not  forbidden  it.  Men  don't  swear  by  their  other 
friends,  by  father  or  mother,  by  wife  or  children  ;  but  just 
because  he  has  said,  "Thou  shalt  not  take  my  name  in 
vain,"  they  say,  "  We  will  do  it."  Blasphemer,  step  into 
the  scales.  Ah  !  you  are  "  Tekel  ;"  you  are  lighter  than  the 
dust  of  the  balance  ;  you  are  weighed  in  the  balance  and 
are  found  wanting.  "  O,"  you  say,  "  but  I  swear  only  when 
I  get  mad!"  Yes,  and  that  shows  that  you  have  a  bad 
heart,  or  else  you  would  never  think  of  taking  the  name  of 
God  in  vain.  That  is  no  excuse  ;  God  will  not  hold  you 
guiltless.  If  he  should  say  to  you  to-night,  "  Step  in  and 
be  weighed,"  your  soul  would  be  lost  forever  for  breaking 
this  command. 

Take  another  weight  [another  paper]  with  the  fourth 
commandment  written  on  it :  "  Remember  the  sabbath 
clay,  to  keep  it  holy."  Have  you  observed  God's  sabbath  ? 
Are  you  willing  to  be  weighed  against  this  command- 
ment ?  Some  of  these  Christians  may  say,  "  That  cuts 
us  too."  Very  well,  let  it  cut.  Woe  be  to  the  nation  that 
disrespects  G  d's  sabbath.     Are  you  innocent  in  this  mat- 


Doctrines  -Sin  and  Salvation.  417 

ter?  I  have  been  talking  with  some  of  these  street-car 
conductors,  and  they  tell  me  they  have  no  chance  to  go 
to  the  house  of  God  ;  they  have  to  work  on  Sunday  as 
well  as  on  any  other  day.  How  many  of  you  ride  on 
the  street-cars  to  come  down  to  these  Sunday-morning 
meetings  ? 

O,  you  say,  "We  couldn't  come  if  we  didn't  come  by 
the  cars." 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  to  do  !  Walk.  It'll  do  you  good.  I 
have  had  a  rule  for  a  long  time  not  to  do  any  thing  to  take 
away  another  man's  sabbath.  One  day  in  London  I  had 
to  walk  ten  miles  to  get  to  my  four  appointments,  which  I 
was  foolish  enough  to  make  before  consulting  the  table  of 
distances.  I  went  to  bed  that  night  very  tired,  but  I  had 
a  clear  conscience.  I  should  hate  to  own  stock  in  these 
street-railways.  No  man  can  work  seven  days  a  week 
and  save  his  soul. 

Here  is  another  weight  [another  paper]  with  the  fifth 
commandment  on  it :  "  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother." 
How  many  young  people  here  are  willing  to  be  weighed 
against  this  law  of  God  ? 

I  have  never  known  a  young  lady  to  marry  against  the 
wishes  of  her  parents  who  did  not  come  to  trouble  on  ac- 
count of  it.  I  think  the  general  lack  of  honor  to  parents  is 
one  of  the  signs  of  the  last  days  ;  for  we  read  that  in  the 
last  days  there  shall  be  people  "  without  natural  affection," 
as  well  as  the  other  sins  that  are  mentioned.  How  many 
sons  are  there  here  who  laugh  at  their  mothers'  prayers  ? 
You  may  laugh  now,  but  when  God  bids  you  step  into  his 
balances,  and  weighs  you  against  this  commandment, you 
will  not  laugh  any  more.     Put  it  with  the  rest  Tsuiting  the 


41S      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

action  to  the  word.]  We  are  not  to  be  weighed  by  one, 
but  by  all  the  laws  of  God. 

Here  is  the  sixth  commandment:  [another  paper:] 
"  Thou  shalt  not  kill."  Perhaps  there  is  not  a  murderer 
in  all  this  congregation,  but  is  there  any  one  here  who 
ever  got  so  angry  with  any  one  as  to  wish  he  were  dead  ? 
If  so,  Christ  says  that  he  is  a  murderer.  "  He  that  hateth 
his  brother  is  a  murderer,  and  we  know  that  no  murderer 
hath  eternal  life."  Can  you  not  see  written  up  over  you 
when  weighed  by  this  law,  "  Tekel,  thou  art  weighed  in 
the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting  ? " 

Take  the  seventh  commandment :  "  Thou  shalt  not  com- 
mit adultery."  This  seems  to  be  the  most  common  of  all 
sins,  and  yet  it  is  of  such  a  nature  that  we  cannot  preach 
about  it  very  freely.  Young  man,  are  you  guilty  of  this 
sin — guilty  even  in  thought?  How  many  men  come  into 
these  inquiry  rooms  bound  hand  and  foot  with  this  infamous 
vice !  They  are  in  the  power  of  some  harlot,  and  she  says  : 
"  If  you  desert  me  I  will  expose  you."  Can  you  take  that 
harlot  with  you  into  God's  scales  ?  Perhaps  you  think 
your  sin  is  secret,  and  no  one  knows  it ;  but  let  me  tell  you, 
God  knows  it.  Many  a  man  has  been  brought  down  to 
hell  by  that  sin,  and  he  hands  down  to  his  posterity  evils 
that  will  follow  them  for  generations.  Arise,  shake  your- 
self like  Samson  ;  confess  your  sin  to  God  ;  break  it  off; 
leave  the  way  to  the  house  of  her  whose  feet  take  hold 
on  hell!     Tekel !     Tekel !     Tekel! 

Here  is  the  eighth  commandment :  "  Thou  shalt  not 
steal."  There  may  be  some  thieves  here  to-night ;  some 
clerk  who  has  taken  five  cents  of  his  employer's  money  to 
get  a  cigar,  or  ten  cents  to  get  a  shave  ;  but  he  is  just  as 


Doctrines    Sin  and  Salvation.  419 

truly  a  thief  as  if  he  had  stolen  a  thousand  dollars.  Don't 
you  see  how  quick  it  will  bring  you  to  ruin  ?  It  is  a  thou- 
sand times  better  to  go  up  to  heaven  from  some  poor- 
house  than  to  go  down  to  hell  from  a  gilded  palace.  Put 
it  with  the  rest,  [he  did  so,]  for  we  must  be  weighed 
against  them  all. 

The  ninth  commandment:  "Thou  shalt  not  bear  false 
witness  against  thy  neighbor."  Are  you  guilty  of  saving 
any  thing  against  your  neighbor  that  is  not  true?  Or,  in 
other  words,  are  you  guilty  of  lying  ?  And  here  is  the 
tenth,  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet."  Have  you  never  coveted 
your  neighbor's  wealth  ?  I  used  to  sin  that  way  very  often 
before  I  was  converted. 

And  now  let  us  add  the  new  commandment  which  Christ 
gave,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and 
with  all  thy  mind  ;  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Is  love 
reigning  in  your  heart?  Arc  you  selfish  ?  Is  your  heart 
set  on  this  world  and  not  on  God  ?  This  is  one  of  the 
commandments  by  which  you  have  got  to  be  weighed. 

Here  comes  up  a  moralist ;  he  may  suppose  he  has  kept 
all  these  commandments — has  never  broken  one  of  them, 
but  when  he  looks  at  the  scales  ho  finds  written  on  one 
side  of  the  beam  in  letters  of  fire,  "  Except  a  man  be  born 
again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  He  looks  at 
the  other  side  and  reads,  "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all 
likewise  perish."  And  what  is  to  become  of  the  moralist 
th'/n  ?  He  may  be  as  good  a  man  as  Nicodemus,  against 
whom  there  isn't  a  word  of  complaint  in  the  Bible,  but  it 
was  to  that  very  man  that  Jesus  said,  "  Except  a  man  be 
born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit  he  cannot  enter  into  the 


420      Moody:  his  Works — Work— Workers. 

kingdom  of  God."  I  would  rather  preach  to  this  hall  full 
of  thieves,  and  drunkards,  and  vagabonds,  than  to  a  hall 
full  of  self-righteous  Pharisees  ;  there  would  be  more  hope 
of  their  being  saved,  for  it  wouldn't  take  them  so  long  to 
see  their  sins  and  turn  to  Christ  to  be  saved  from  them. 

I  should  like  to  weigh  a  few  different  classes  of  people 
in  these  scales.  Take  the  rum-sellers.  Is  there  a  rum- 
seller  here  ?  You  may  say  you  will  not  be  weighed,  but 
the  time  will  come  when  you  must  be  weighed.  God 
will  put  you  in  one  scale,  and  that  word  in  the  other 
which  says,  "  Woe  to  him  that  putteth  the  bottle  to  his 
neighbor's  lips."  Escape  for  thy  life  to-night,  or  the  time 
is  coming  when  you  will  look  up  and  see  written  over 
you,  "  Tekel ;  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  found  wanting." 

Now,  shall  we  weigh  the  drunkard  ?  Here  is  God's 
word,  "  No  drunkard  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God," 
and  when  God  puts  you  in  his  balances  you  will  be  lighter 
than  vanity. 

There  may  be  some  cold  or  lukewarm  professors  of  re- 
ligion here.  What  is  to  become  of  you  ?  You  may  say, 
"  I  belong  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  or  the  Methodist 
Church,  or  the  Baptist  Church."  Well,  are  you  ready 
to  be  weighed  ?  You  are  like  the  foolish  virgins  ;  they 
had  lamps — they  had  a  profession  of  religion,  but  they 
had  no  oil  in  their  lamps,  no  real  saving  grace  in  their 
souls  ;  and  when  they  came  and  knocked  for  admittance, 
the  Bridegroom  said,  "  Depart,  I  never  knew  you." 

Leave  your  dead  formality ;  arouse  yourself,  for  God 
says,  "  Since  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot,  but  lukewarm, 
I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my  mouth."  "  Tekel ;  thou  art 
weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting.' 


Doctrines — Six  and  Salvation.  421 

But  I  imagine  some  one  saying,  "  I  would  like  to  see 
Mr.  Moody  put  the  test  to  himself."  Well,  my  friends,  I 
am  ready  any  time  to  step  into  the  scales  and  be  weighed. 
Haven't  I  broken  the  law?  Yes.  But  when  God  tells  me 
to  step  into  his  scales  I  shall  take  Christ  in  with  me.  He 
never  broke  the  law,  and  his  righteousness  will  be  enough 
for  me.  The  Son  of  God  is  more  than  all  the  command- 
ments, and  if  I  am  in  the  scale  with  him  I  shall  not  be 
found  wanting.  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteous- 
ness to  every  one  that  believeth  ;  and  when  death  comes 
we  who  have  Christ  formed  in  us — who  have  received  his 
nature  and  his  righteousness — need  not  be  afraid  ;  but  they 
who  are  out  of  Christ,  and  are  trusting  to  their  own  right- 
eousness, will  find  written  over  them,  "  Tekel  ;  thou 
art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting." 


LAW  AND  GRACE. 

"For  the  law  was  given  by   Moses,   but  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus 
Christ." — John  i,  17. 

I  am  going  to  talk  to  you  to-night  about  grace.  There 
are  a  good  many  people  who  don't  seem  to  understand 
what  it  means.  Well,  I  will  tell  you  :  grace  means  unmer- 
ited mercy,  undeserved  favor.  Now,  I  want  you  to  bear  in 
mind  that  God  is  the  God  of  all  grace,  but  we  shouldn't 
have  known  any  tiling  about  it  if  it  hadn't  been  for  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  gospel. 

Men  talk  about  grace,  but  the}  don't  seem  to  under- 
stand it.  These  bankers  talk  about  grace.  If  you  want  to 
borrow  a  thousand  dollars,  they  will  let  you  have  it  if  you 
can  give  them  good  security  :  and  they  take  your  note  for  it : 


422      Moody:  his  Words— Works— Workers. 

"  Thirty  days  from  date  I  promise  to  pay  a  thousand  dol- 
lars." Then,  when  the  time  comes  to  pay  it,  they  give  you 
three  days  more  than  the  thirty  days,  and  they  call  them 
"days  of  grace,"  but  they  make  you  pay  interest  for  those 
three  days  all  the  same  ;  and  when  the  days  of  grace  are 
up,  if  you  cannot  pay  the  money  they  will  sell  you  out 
and  take  every  thing  you  have  got.  Not  much  grace  about 
that.  If  you  want  any  grace  you  must  go  to  God  for  it : 
his  grace  forgives  interest,  principal,  and  all. 

Now  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fifth  chapter 
of  Romans  and  the  twentieth  verse  :  "  Moreover,  the  law 
entered,  that  the  offense  might  abound.  But  where  sin 
abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound  :  that  as  sin  hath 
reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through 
righteousness,  unto  eternal  life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord."  Now,  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  but  grace  hath 
reigned  unto  eternal  life.  It  don't  stop  with  death,  grace 
don't ;  it  carries  us  past  death,  right  through  the  grave, 
clear  over  into  the  Promised  Land.  In  the  first  chapter 
of  Joshua  we  read  that  Moses  brought  the  children  of 
Israel  clown  to  Jordan,  but  he  couldn't  bring  them  any 
further.  He  was  the  representative  of  the  law,  and 
that  is  where  the  law  brings  us  to — to  Jordan.  Jordan 
means  death — judgment.  After  bringing  them  to  death 
and  judgment,  he  couldn't  bring  them  any  further,  but  left 
them  there.  The  law  brings  us  to  death,  and  there  it 
leaves  us  ;  it  don't  give  life  ;  it  never  has  given  life,  and  it 
never  can.  Sin  reigns  unto  death,  but  the  grace  of  God 
hath  reigned  unto  eternal  life.  So  when  Moses  had 
brought  the  children  of  Israel  down  to  Jordan,  and 
couldn't  go  any  further,  then   came  Joshua  and  took   the 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  423 

congregation  over.     Joshua  means  Jesus.     And  as  Joshua 

led  them  over  Jordan,  so  Jesus  will  take  his  people 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  over  unto  eter- 
nal life.  John  the  Baptist  was  the  last  representative  of 
the  law.  lie  brought  the  people  who  came  to  be  baptized 
down  into  Jordan,  and  he  left  them  at  Jordan,  and  when 
Christ  came  he  commenced  where  John  had  left  off — fie 
went  into  the  Jordan  and  brought  the  people  out  of  it. 
That  is  the  difference  between  law  and  grace  ;  law  slays 
a  man,  but  grace  makes  him  live  ;  the  law  takes  a  man  to 
death  and  judgment,  but  Christ  comes  and  quickens  him, 
and  gives  him  eternal  life.  Some  people  are  lingering 
around  Sinai  yet :  leave  it  and  come  to  Calvary. 

See  the  prodigal  son.  He  went  away  and  lived  a  low 
and  vicious  life.  He  squandered  all  he  had.  He  was  ?. 
drunkard  and  spent  his  substance  on  harlots  and  thieves, 
but  how  did  his  father  treat  him?  Did  he  take  him  out 
and  have  him  stoned  to  death  ?  No.  That  would  have 
been  his  fate  under  the  law  I  have  read  to  you  ;  but  see 
how  his  father  acted  toward  him  under  grace.  He  met 
him  with  a  kiss,  and  treated  him  with  kindness  and  love. 
The  law  says,  "  Stone  him  ;"  grace  says,  "Kiss  him." 

When  Moses  was  in  Egypt  he  turned  the  water  into 
blood  :  when  Christ  was  on  earth  he  turned  the  water 
into  wine.  That  is  the  difference  between  law  and  grace. 
Law  says,  "  Kill  him  ;"  grace  says,  "  Forgive  him." 

Law  makes  us  crooked  ;  grace  straightens  us.  Law 
makes  us  vile  ;  grace  cleanses  us. 

When  the  law  came  out  of  Horeb  three  thousand  men 
were  lost.  A;  Pentecost,  under  grace,  three  thousand 
men  got  lite.     What  a  difference! 


424     Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

When  Moses  came  to  the  burning  bush  he  was  com- 
manded to  take  the  shoes  from  off  his  feet.  When  the 
prodigal  came  home  after  years  of  wandering  and  wicked- 
ness he  was  given  a  pair  of  shoes  to  put  on  his  feet. 

The  law  is  a  school-master  ;  a  cold,  severe  man  that 
is  continually  holding  a  rattan  over  you.  Thou  shalt 
do  this,  and  thou  shalt  do  that.  This  is  the  law,  with  a 
rattan  at  the  back  of  it  ;  but  under  grace  the  school- 
master trios  to  rule  the  school  with  love.  We  had  a  man 
in  the  little  country  school  I  used  to  go  to  who  was  stern 
and  harsh,  and  always  kept  a  rattan  handy.  I  can  feel  it 
on  my  back  to-night.  But  after  awhile  there  came  a  lady 
who  tried  to  rule  by  love. 

That  suited  us.  No  more  rattans.  What  fun  we  were 
going  to  have. 

I  was  the  first  boy  to  disobey,  and  she  asked  me  to 
stay  after  school;  and  then  she  talked  to  me  with  tears 
in  her  eyes,  and  said,  "  If  you  love  me,  keep  my  rules." 
I  tell  you  I  never  broke  any  of  her  rules  after  that !  Just 
so  Christ  says,  "  If  you  love  me,  keep  my  command- 
ments." That  is  the  strongest  kind  of  an  argument,  and 
that  is  the  doctrine  of  grace. 

Now  the  question  comes,  How  are  we  to  become  par- 
takers of  this  grace?  In  the  fourth  chapter  of  Hebrews 
and  the  sixteenth  verse  we  read  :  "  Let  us  therefore  come 
boldly  unto  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may  obtain  mercy, 
and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need."  God  wants  us  to 
come  and  get  all  the  grace  we  need.  The  reason  why 
there  are  so  many  poverty-stricken  Christians  is,  because 
they  don't  come  to  the  throne  of  grace. 

It  is  related  of  Alexander    that  he  gave   one  of   his 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  425 

generals  who  had  pleased  him  permission  to  draw  on  his 
treasurer  for  any  sum.  When  the  draft  came  in  the  treas- 
urer was  scared,  and  wouldn't  pay  it  till  he  saw  his  master. 
But  when  the  treasurer  told  him  what  he  had  done  Alex- 
ander said,  "Don't  you  know  that  he  has  honored  me  and 
my  kingdom  by  making  a  large  draft  ?  "  So  we  honor  God 
by  making  a  large  draft  on  him.  If  there  is  a  drunkard 
here  who  wishes  to  get  control  of  his  appetite,  all  he  has 
to  do  is  to  come  to  Christ  with  a  great  draft. 

When  Dr.  Arnold  was  in  this  country — he  is  now  in 
heaven — I  heard  him  use  an  illustration  in  a  sermon  that 
impressed  me.  He  said:  "Haven't  you  ever  been  in  a 
house  where  the  family  were  at  dinner,  and  haven't  you 
seen  the  old  family  dog  standing  near  and  watching  his 
master,  and  looking  at  every  morsel  of  food  as  if  he  wished 
he  had  it  ?  If  his  master  drops  a  crumb,  he  at  once  licks 
it  up  ;  but  if  he  should  set  the  dish  of  roast  beef  down,  and 
say,  '  Come,  come,'  the  dog  wouldn't  touch  it — it's  too 
much  for  him.  So  with  God's  children  ;  they  are  willing 
to  take  a  crumb,  but  refuse  when  God  wants  them  to  go 
for  the  platter."  God  wants  you  to  come  right  to  the 
throne  of  grace  ;  come  boldly,  and  ask  great  things. 

Awhile  ago  I  learned  from  the  Chicago  papers  that 
there  had  been  a  run  on  the  banks,  and  many  of  them 
were  broken.  What  a  good  tiling  it  would  be  to  get  up 
a  run  on  the  bank  of  heaven  !  God  has  been  trying  to 
get  up  a  run  on  the  Hank  of  Grace  for  the  last  eighteen 
hundred  years,  but  he  can't   do  it. 

Grace  means  pardon  for  the  past,  peace  for  the  present, 
glory  for  the  future.  Pardon  and  peace  now,  and  eternal 
glory  just  beyond. 


426      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


FREE  SALVATION. 

"  And  he  said  unto  them,  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature.  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  ; 
but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned." — Mark  xvi,  15,  16. 

I  like  those  texts  that  have  such  a  good  sweep  that 
they  take  in  every  body.  Some  preachers  have  great 
trouble  in  getting  their  hearers  to  believe  that  they  are 
included  in  the  Gospel  call,  but  surely  every  body  is  to 
be  invited  according  to  this  farewell  charge  of  Christ  to 
his  disciples.  These  words  were  uttered  after  Christ  had 
tasted  death  for  every  man.  Gethsemane  was  behind  him  ; 
Calvary,  with  all  its  horrors,  was  past ;  he  was  just  ready 
to  go  home  to  take  his  seat  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father,  and  was  giving  the  disciples  their  commission  and 
his  parting  message. 

I  can  just  imagine  all  that  little  band  of  disciples  who 
stood  around  him — those  unlearned  men  of  Galilee — those 
fishermen  who  had  been  associated  with  him  for  three 
years — I  can  imagine  the  tears  trickling  down  their  cheeks 
as  he  talked  of  leaving  them  ;  and  some  of  them  thinking 
that  the  Lord  didn't  really  mean  that  they  should  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  for  he  had  hard  work  to 
make  them  believe  that  the  Gospel  was  to  be  preached  to 
the  Gentiles. 

It  seems  as  if  the  Jews  wanted  to  keep  the  Gospel  in  Pal- 
estine ;  but  by  the  grace  of  God  it  would  flow  out ;  it  would 
go  to  the  world  because  he  had  given  orders  that  the  Gos- 
pel should  be  preached  to  every  creature.  And  now  we 
find  the  messengers  going  to  the  four  corners  of  the  earth 
to  proclaim  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 


Doctrines — Sin  and  Salvation.  427 

But  I  can  imagine  that  Peter  says:  -'Lord,  you  don't 
really  mean  that  we  shall  preach  the  Gospel  to  those  men 
that  murdered  you.  do  you  ?  " 

"Yes,"  says  the  Lord,  "go  and  preach  the  Gospel  to 
those  Jerusalem  sinners,  to  those  chief  priests  and  Phari- 
sees ;  go  and  hunt  up  that  man  that  put  the  crown  of  thorns 
upon  my  brow,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  him.  Tell  him 
he  may  have  a  crown  in  my  kingdom  without  a  thorn  in 
it,  and  may  sit  upon  my  throne,  if  he  will  accept  of  salva- 
tion as  a  gift.  Go  find  that  man  that  spat  in  my  face,  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  him,  and  offer  him  salvation,  and  tell 
him  he  can  be  saved  if  he  is  only  cleansed  by  the  blood  I 
shed  at  Calvary.  Go  to  the  man  that  thrust  the  spear 
into  my  side,  and  tell  him  there  is  a  nearer  way  to  my 
heart  than  that.  Tell  him  there  is  nothing  but  love  in 
my  heart  for  him.    Go  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature!' 

After  he  had  gone  up  on  high  we  find  the  Holy  Ghost 
came  down  on  the  tenth  day,  and  then  they  began  to 
preach.  Now  sec  Peter,  standing  there  upon  the  day  of 
Pentecost  and  preaching  the  Gospel  to  those  sinners ; 
and  as  John  Bunyan  says,  "  If  a  Jerusalem  sinner  can  be 
saved,  there  is  hope  for  us  all." 

Do  you  think  God  is  mocking?  Do  you  think  he  is 
offering  salvation  to  you,  and  then  not  giving  you  the  power 
to  take  it  ?  The  Gospel  is  preached  to  every  creature, 
and  do  you  think  he  is  not  willing  that  every  creature  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  shall  be  saved  ? 

I  like  to  proclaim  the  Gospel,  because  it  is  to  be  pro- 
claimed to  all.  When  I  see  a  poor  drunkard,  when  I  see 
a  thief,  when  I  see  a  prisoner  in  yonder  prison,  it  is  a 
grand,  glorious  thing  to  go  and  proclaim  to  him  the  glad 


428      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

tidings,  because  I  know  he  can  be  saved.  There  is  no 
one  that  has  gone  so  far,  or  fallen  so  low,  but  that  he  can 
be  saved  ;  because  every  one  of  God's  proclamations  are 
headed  "  whosoever."     That  takes  in  all. 

In  a  prison  the  other  day  the  chaplain  said  to  me:  "I 
want  to  tell  you  a  scene  that  occurred  here  some  time 
ago.  Our  commissioners  went  to  the  governor  of  the 
State  and  got  him  to  give  his  consent  to  pardon  out  five 
men  for  good  behavior.  The  governor  said  the  record  was 
to  be  kept  in  secret  ;  the  men  were  to  know  nothing  about 
it.  At  the  end  of  six  months  the  men  were  brought  out, 
the  roll  called,  and  the  president  of  the  commission  came 
up  and  spoke  to  them  ;  then  putting  his  hands  in  his 
pocket  he  drew  out  the  papers  and  said  to  those  eleven  hun- 
dred convicts,  '  I  hold  in  my  hand  pardons  for  five  men.' 
I  never  witnessed  any  thing  like  it.  Every  man  held  his 
breath — it  was  as  silent  as  death.  Then  the  commis- 
sioner went  on  to  tell  how  they  got  these  pardons  ;  how 
it  was  the  governor  had  given  them  ;"  and  the  chaplain 
said  the  suspense  was  so  great  that  he  spoke  out  to  the 
commissioner  and  asked  him  to  first  read  the  names  of  those 
pardoned  before  he  spoke  further.  The  first  name  read 
out  was,  "  Reuben  Johnson.  Let  Reuben  Johnson  come 
and  get  his  pardon.' 

"  He  held  out  the  paper,  but  no  one  came.  He  looked 
all  around,  expecting  to  see  a  man  spring  to  his  feet  at 
once  ;  still  no  one  arose  ;  then  he  turned  to  the  officer  of 
the  prison  and  said  : — 

" '  Are  all  the  convicts  here  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,'  was  the  reply. 

"  'Then  Reuben  Johnson  will  come  and  get  his  pardon."' 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation*  429 

The  real   Reuben  Johnson   was   all   this   time  looking 

around  to  sec  where  Reuben  was  ;  and  when  the  chaplain 
beckoned  to  him,  he  turned  and  looked  around  behind 
him,  thinking  some  other  man  must  be  meant.  A  second 
time  he  beckoned  to  Reuben,  and  called  to  him,  and  a 
second  time  the  man  looked  around  to  see  where  Reuben 
was,  until  at  last  the  chaplain  said  to  him,  "You  are  the 
man,  Reuben  ;"  and  he  rose  in  his  seat  and  sank  back 
again,  thinking  it  could  not  be  true.  He  had  been  there 
for  nineteen  years,  having  been  placed  ihere  for  life,  and 
when  he  came  up  and  took  his  pardon  he  could  hardly 
believe  his  eyes  ;  and  he  went  back  to  his  seat  and  wept 
like  a  child.  When  the  convicts  were  marched  back  to 
their  cells  Reuben  had  been  so  long  in  the  habit  of  tailing 
into  line  and  taking  the  lock-step  with  the  rest  that  he 
fell  into  his  place,  and  the  chaplain  had  to  say,  "  Reuben, 
come  out  ;  you  are  a  free  man." 

That  is  the  way  men  make  out  their  pardon — for  good 
behavior  ;  but  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  offered  to  those 
that  have  not  behaved  well.  It  is  offered  to  all  that  have 
sinned  and  are  not  worthy.  All  a  man  has  got  to  prove 
now  is,  that  he  is  not  worthy,  and  I  will  show  him  that 
Christ  died  for  him.  Christ  died  for  us  while  we  were  yet 
in  sin  ;  that  is  the  glory  of  his  gospel. 

When  we  were  in  London,  Mr.  Spurgeon  one  day  took 
Mr.  Sankey  and  myself  to  his  orphan  asylum,  and  he 
was  telling  us  about  the  children — that  some  of  them  had 
aunts  and  cousins,  and  that  every  boy  had  some  friend 
who  took  an  interest  in  him,  and  came  to  see  him,  and  gave 
him  a  little  pocket-money.  One  daw  while  he  stood  there 
a  little  boy  came  up  to  him  and  said,  "  Mr.  Spurgeon,  let  me 


430      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

speak  to  you.  Suppose  your  father  and  mother  were 
dead,  and  you  didn't  have  any  cousins,  or  aunts,  or  uncles, 
or  friends  to  come  to  see  you  and  give  you  pocket-money 
and  presents,  like  the  rest  of  the  boys  do,  don't  you  think 
you  would  feel  bad  ? — because  that's  me  !  " 

"  I  put  my  right  hand  down  into  my  pocket,"  said  Mr. 
Spurgeon,  "  and  took  out  some  money  and  gave  him." 

Because  that's  me  !  And  so  with  the  Gospel ;  let  every 
lost  sinner  say,  "  Christ  died  for  me." 


RIGHTEOUSNESS   FIRST. 

"  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  Ins  righteousness  ;  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you." — Matthew  vi,  33. 

Now  that  is  just  as  much  a  command  as  it  is  that  men 
shan't  swear.  It  is  just  as  much  a  command  that  all  are 
to  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  as  it  is  that  we  shall  not 
steal,  or  lie,  or  kill.  People  talk  about  the  ten  command- 
ments, but  there  are  a  great  many  other  commandments 
in  the  Bible.  Some  people  are  wondering  why  it  is  that 
they  don't  prosper  in  life — why  they  don't  get  on  better. 
To  me  it  is  a  great  wonder  we  get  along  as  well  as  we 
do,  going  against  all  God's  laws,  and  disobeying  him  con- 
tinually. If  you  had  a  son  who  wouldn't  obey  you  you 
would  not  expect  him  to  prosper,  and  wouldn't  be  anx- 
ious that  he  should,  because  prosperity  in  wickedness 
would  be  an  injury  to  him. 

"Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of « God,  and  his  righteous- 
ness " — not  our  own.  You  may  be  seeking  after  your  own 
righteousness ;  but  what  does  the  Bible  say  ?    "  Seek  ye 


Doctrines— Sen  and  Salvation.  431 

first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness."  That's 
what  we  want — we  want  God's  righteousness.  Now,  if 
we  are  going  to  seek  our  own  righteousness,  of  course  we 
will  not  get  into  God's  kingdom,  because  we  cannot  get 
there  with  our  own  righteousness  ;  it  is  only  when  we  give 
up  our  righteousness — filthy  rags — and  seek  God's  right- 
eousness with  all  our  hearts,  that  we  get  into  the  kingdom 
.  of  God. 

"  First,"  says  the  text  ;  but  a  great  many  people  think  it 
is  time  enough  to  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  after  they 
have  attended  to  every  thing  else.  What  God  puts  first 
you  put  last,  and  what  he  puts  last  you  put  first. 

But  some  one  will  say:  "Ah,  Mr.  Moody,  that  is  well 
enough  for  talk,  but  you  just  get  where  I  am — out  of  work 
— no  money — no  friends — a  stranger  in  the  city — and  you 
would  tell  a  different  story."  My  friends,  I  know  just 
what  that  means.  I  have  walked  the  streets  of  Boston 
out  of  work,  out  of  money,  and  not  knowing  what  I  was 
going  to  do  for  a  living.  The  whole  of  my  early  life  was 
one  long  struggle  with  poverty  ;  but  I  have  no  doubt  it 
was  God's  way  of  bringing  me  to  himself.  And  since  I 
began  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  I  have  never  want- 
ed for  any  thing :  God  has  added  all  other  things  unto  me. 

But  it  will  not  do  to  seek  Christ  because  of  what  you 
hope  to  make  by  it.  I  used  to  make  a  mistake  on  that 
point.  When  I  was  at  work  in  the  City  Relief  Society, 
before  the  fire,  I  used  to  go  to  a  poor  sinner  with  the 
Bible  in  one  hand  and  a  loaf  of  bread  in  the  other.  Dr. 
Chalmers  used  to  forbid  his  missionaries  giving  away 
money  or  supplies.  He  said  those  things  ought  to  come 
by   other   hands,   and  I  thought   he  was  all   wrong.      My 


432       Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

idea  was  that  I  could  open  a  poor  man's  heart  by  giving 
him  a  load  of  wood  or  a  ton  of  coal  when  the  winter  was 
coming  on,  but  I  soon  found  out  that  he  wasn't  any  more 
interested  in  the  Gospel  on  that  account.  Instead  of 
thinking  how  he  could  come  to  Christ,  he  was  thinking 
how  long  it  would  be  before  he  got  another  load  of  wood. 
If  I  had  the  Bible  in  one  band  and  a  loaf  in  the  other  the 
people  always  looked  first  at  the  loaf;  and  that  was  just 
contrary  to  the  order  laid  down  in  the  Gospel. 

If  you  obey  this  text  you  will  seek  the  kingdom  of  God 
right  now,  before  you  do  any  thing  else,  before  you  go 
home,  before  I  stop  preaching  and  invite  you  to  the  in- 
quiry room.     "  First,"  means  this  instant. 

It  is  said  that  Dr.  Chalmers  once  went  to  spend  a  few 
days  with  a  Christian  family,  and  when  he  arrived  the 
mother  said  to  him,  "  Doctor,  there  is  my  daughter  ;  she  is 
away  from  God,  and  we  can't  get  her  to  seek  him,  with  all 
we  can  do."  The  good  man  promised  to  speak  to  her. 
So  after  awhile  he  met  her  alone,  and  said  to  her,  "They 
bother   you   a  good   deal  talking    religion    to    you,   don't 

they  ? " 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  answered  the  Scotch  lassie. 

"  Well,"  said  the  doctor,  "  suppose  I  tell  your  mother 
that  you  arc  tired  of  this  thing,  and  that  no  one  is  to  say 
any  thing  more  to  you  about  religion  for  a  year." 

The  girl  thought  for  a  moment,  and  then  replied : 
"  Perhaps  it  wouldn't  be  safe  to  put  it  off  a  whole  year." 

"  Perhaps  it  wouldn't,"  he  replied.  "  Shall  we  say  six 
months  then  ?" 

"  I  might  die  in  six  months,"  answered  the  girl. 

"Quite  so  ;  maybe  we  had  better  say  three  months." 


Doctrines — Six  and  Salvation.  433 

"  But  there  is  no  telling  what  might  happen  in  three 
months,"  said  the  lassie,  now  fully  awakened  to  a  sense 
of  her  danger  out  of  Christ. 

"  You  are  right,"  said  the  doctor.  "  Perhaps  it  is  not 
safe  to  put  it  off  at  all."  And  down  upon  their  knees 
they  went,  and  the  young  lady  soon  gave  her  heart  to 
Christ. 


SERMON   TO    FALLEN    WOMEN. 

On  Wednesday,  December  8,  Mr.  Moody  read  the  following  letter, 
saying  he  had  been  in  doubt  whether  to  make  it  public  or  not,  but 
did  so  with  the  hope  that  it  might  do  good.  He  declared  his  earnest 
sympathy  with  the  class  of  persons  represented  by  the  writer,  and 
during  the  reading  there  was  almost  breathless  silence.  Nothing 
has  produced  such  an  overwhelming  impression  upon  an  audience 
since  the  meetings  began,  and  the  thought  that  the  writer,  who  had 
evidently  been  a  lady  of  culture  before  her  sad  fall,  was  probably  in 
the  house,  added  not  a  little  to  the  interest  with  which  the  audience 
listened  to  her  well-worded  letter:  — 

,.    T     ,.  Chicago,  December  -. 

I).  L.  Moody.  ' 

Dear  Sir, —  I   am  a  prostitute,  and  in  perusing  the  daily  papers  I  am 

often  anxious  to  hear  you  say  something  for  us  and  for  our  class.  Ymi  admit 
into  your  presence  and  invite  experiences  from  men  who  have  been  the 
vilest  rascals,  whoremongers,  and  villains  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  You 
warn  them  to  "  come  to  Christ  "  in  time  to  be  saved,  but  you  have  not, 
since  your  stay  in  Chicago,  to  my  know  ledge,  said  one  word  of  comfort 
to  us.  Several  days  ago  I  noticed  that  you  advised  young  men  who  were 
living  with  "harlots  "  "  to  leave  them  at  once,  and  have  nothing  more  to 
do  with  them."  Would  it  not  have  been  well  to  say,  "  Not  only  come 
yourself,  young  man,  but  try  and  induce  those  'victims  of  man's  lust'  to 
come  with  you  ?"  I  have  asked  myself,  Am  I  too  low  to  lie  asked  by  man 
to  come  to  Christ,  when  God  himself  has  said,  "There  is  none  righteous, 
no,  not  one."  There  are  young  girls  in  this  city  who  are  leading  lives 
of  shame  because  of  the  lustful  passions  of  men  who  have  joined  your  meet- 
ings, and  whom  you  have  taken  into  the  fold  lately.  What  do  you  or  they 
care  for  the  waifs  and  stray  ones  thus  ruined  ?  Is  it  right  that  such  things 
should  be?     Have  you  no  word  of  comfort  for  us? 

Mr.  Moodv,  do  you  believe  JeiU3  Chriit,  who  died  to  save  iinnei 
19 


434       Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

the  last  great  day  going  to  discriminate  between  your  reformed  profligates 
and  us,  who  have  suffered  a  thousand  times  more  than  they  the  pangs  of 
disgrace  and  the  scorn  of  society  on  their  account  ? 

Remember,  Mr.  Moody,  that  God  is  a  just  God,  and  the  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  society  will  not  cut  much  figure  in  the  end. 

I  think  you  are  a  one-sided  evangelist,  and  pander  more  to  the  tastes  of 
society  than  to  your  entire  duty.  You  give  yourself  up  to  work  for  Christ, 
and  don't  half  do  it.  Remember  that  Chicago  has  nearly  as  many  aban. 
doned  women  as  men.  We  need  the  comfort  of  Jesus  as  much  as  they, 
and  are  just  as  capable  to  remain  steadfast  in  our  reformation  as  they,  not- 
withstanding we  arc  ostracised  from  society  while  they  are  admitted  into 
the  best. 

Hoping  when  you  next  speak  you  will  say  something  about  our  leaving 
our  present  lives,  we,  that  is— some  of  us— will  be  there  to  hear  what  you 
say.  Yours, 

A  Sinful  Girl. 

After  reading  the  letter  Mr.  Moody  offered  a  prayer  full  of  deep 
and  tender  emotion  for  these  poor  fallen  women,  who,  he  said,  were 
not  a  bit  worse  than  fallen  men.  He  then  announced  that  he 
would  try  and  speak  a  word  on  Thursday  night  to  this  class  of  per- 
sons, and  earnestly  invited  them  to  come  to  the  Tabernacle  and  hear 
the  hope  which  Christ  held  out  to  them  in  the  Gospel.  Many  in  the 
audience  were  in  tears.  The  impression  made  by  the  scene  cannot 
fail  to  be  a  lasting  benefit.  The  letter  itself,  however,  is  hardly  a 
fair  showing  of  the  work  of  the  revival.  If  Mr.  Moody  has  been  a 
"one-sided  evangelist,"  the  Woman's  Evangelistic  Committee  have 
furnished  the  other  side,  and  quite  a  number  of  just  such  persons 
as  this  broken-hearted  woman  have  been  rescued,  sheltered,  and 
saved. 

The  announcement,  as  might  be  expected,  drew  an  immense  con- 
gregation to  hear  what  Mr.  Moody  had  to  say  to  fallen  women. 

At  half-past  seven  the  Tabernacle  was  full,  but  the  stow-away  proc- 
ess was  continued  until  nearly  eight,  when  the  doors  were  reluc- 
tantly closed.  The  announcement  that  Mr.  Moody  would  speak  some 
words  of  Christian  counsel  and  comfort  to  the  fallen  women  of  Chi- 
cago was  the  especial  attraction  of  the  evening.  The  choir  and  the 
audience  sang  together  for  half  an  hour  with  good  effect,  when  Mr. 
Sankey  entered  and  gave  out  the  hymn  "  Ring  the  Bells  of  Heaven," 
which  was  given  with  great  spirit.  The  solo  and  chorus,  "  Rescue 
the  Perishing,"  was  next  sung,  after  which  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mitchell 
offered  prayer. 

Mr.  Sankey  then  sang  "The  Ninety  and  Nine,"  and  Mr.  Moody 


•Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  435 

read  the  Scripture  lesson  from  the  seventh  chapter  of  Luke,  begin- 
ning with  the  thirty-sixth  verse,  being  the  account  of  the  feast  at  the 
house  of  Matthew  the  publican,  at  which  the  woman  that  was  a  sin- 
ner washed  his  feet  with  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  the  hair  of  her 
head. 

The  following  words,  entitled  "  A  Sinner  Forgiven,"  were  then  sung 
by  Mr.  Sankey  as  a  solo  with  much  tenderness  and  expression  : — 

To  the  hall  of  the  feast  came  the  sinful  and  fair  ; 
She  heard  in  the  city  that  Jesus  was  there  ; 
Unheeding  the  splendor  that  blazed  on  the  board, 
She  silently  knelt  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord. 

The  frown  and  the  murmur  went  round  through,  them  all, 
That  one  so  unhallowed  should  tread  in  that  hall  ; 
And  some  said  the  poor  would  be  objects  more  meet, 
As  the  wealth  of  her  perfume  she  showered  on  His  feet. 

She  heard  but  the  Saviour  ;  she  spoke  with  but  sighs  ; 
Shi'  dared  not  look  up  to  the  heaven  of  his  eyes  ; 
And  the  hot  tears  gushed  forth  at  each  heave  of  her  breast, 
As  her  lips  to  his  sandals  were  throbbingly  pressed. 

In  the  sky,  after  tempest,  as  shineth  the  bow, 

In  the  glance  of  the  sunbeam,  as  melteth  the  snow, 
lie  looked  on  that  lost  one  ;  "  her  sins  were  forgiven," 
And  the  sinner  went  forth  in  the  beauty  of  heaven. 

Mr.  Moody  then  announced  as  his  text  the  fifth  chapter  of  Luke, 
thirty-second  verse  :  "  I  came  wot  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sin- 
ners to  repentance." 

Tins  saying  of  Christ  is  also  mentioned  by  Matthew 
and  Mark,  and  when  you  find  any  thing  recorded  by 
several  of  the  evangelists  you  may  know  it  is  some- 
thing of  great  importance.  Christ  had  been  cast  out  of 
Nazareth  and  had  come  down  to  live  at  Capernaum, 
where  he  found  a  publican  by  the  name  of  Matthew* 
and  said  unto  him,  "  Follow  me."  Matthew  at  once  left 
all  and  followed  Christ,  and  be  was  so  rejoiced  that  he 
made  a  great  feast   and  invited  all  the   publicans  to  his 


436       Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

house  to  meet  his  new  Master.  But  now  we  find  the 
Pharisees  at  their  old  work — complaining.  They  found 
fault  with  Christ  for  receiving  sinners  and  for  eating  with 
publicans,  and  their  complaints  were  the  occasion  of  his 
speaking  the  words  of  the  text:  "  But  their  scribes  and 
Pharisees  murmured  against  his  disciples,  saving,  Why 
do  ye  eat  and  drink  with  publicans  and  sinners  ?  And 
Jesus,  answering,  said  unto  them,  They  that  are  whole 
need  not  a  physician,  but  they  that  are  sick.  I  came 
not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance." 
That  was  Christ's  business,  his  profession,  as  we  might 
call  it.  At  another  time,  when  the  people  of  a  Samari- 
tan town  refused  him  hospitality,  and  James  and  John 
wanted  to  know  if  they  should  call  for  fire  to  come  down 
from  heaven  and  consume  them,  Jesus  said,  "Ye  know 
not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of.  For  the  Son  of 
man  is  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save 
them."   Luke  ix,  55,  56. 

Christ's  mission  is  to  save,  and  he  will  save  every  sin- 
ner in  this  house  to-night  who  is  willing  to  be  saved. 

Some  one  may  say,  "  I  am  too  much  of  a  sinner  to 
come  to  Christ."  Why,  my  friend,  you  might  just  as 
well  say,  "  I  am  too  hungry  to  eat ;"  or,  "  I  am  too  sick- 
to  have  a  doctor ;"  or,  "  I  am  a  beggar,  and  I  will  wait 
till  I  get  something  before  I  ask  any  thing." 

There  isn't  any  kind  of  sinner  in  Chicago  but  has  a 
representative  in  the  Bible.  There  were  the  publicans. 
The  Jews  thought  them  about  ten  degrees  lower  than 
any  other  people,  and  when  they  spoke  of  sinners  they 
put  the  publicans  first— "  publicans  and  sinners."  Some 
of  them  were  the  greatest  villains  that  ever  went  unhung: 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  437 

It  was  their  business  to  collect  the  taxes  for  the  Roman 
government,  and  when  the  taxes  were  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  they  would  collect  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand,  and  keep  the  difference  themselves.  If 
there  was  a  poor  widow  who  couldn't  pay  the  tax  they 
would  sell  every  thing  she  had  to  get  the  money.  Their 
money  was  not  taken  at  the  temple;  priests  would  not 
speak  to  them,  and  the  common  people  despised  them. 
The\- were  almost  as  bad  as  our  rum-sellers.  They  were 
lost,  and  therefore  Christ  came  to  save  them. 

There  are  persecutors,  who  will  not  suffer  their  wives 
and  children  to  become  Christians,  who  ridicule  the 
religion  of  Christ,  and  do  all  in  their  power  against  it, 
just  as  Saul  of  Tarsus  did  ;  but  Christ  saved  him.  There 
is  the  moralist  and  the  Pharisee,  the  hardest  kind  of 
people  fro  reach  ;  they  think  they  are  whole  and  need  no 
physician,  but  Christ  saved  some  of  them  even.  Nico- 
demus  was  a  Pharisee,  and  so  was  Joseph  of  Arimathea. 

But  to-night  I  want  to  talk  to  another  class,  the  fallen 
women.  The  world  seems  to  think  that  if  a  woman  falls 
there  is  no  hope  for  her  ;  but  there  are  such  women  in 
the  Bible,  whom  Jesus  sought  out  and  saved,  and  I  want 
to  call  your  attention  to  three  representative  cases  of 
this  kind.  The  first  is  the  one  mentioned  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  Luke.  She  was  awakened  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  when  Jesus  came  to  that  feast  at  the  house  of 
one  of  the  Phariseess  he  managed  to  pass  the  servant  at 
the  iloor,  and  to  get  into  the  room  where  the  Master, 
according  to  the  custom,  reclined  on  a  couch  at  table 
in  such  a  manner  that  his  feet,  instead  of  being  under 
the   table,    rested   on   the   couch   behind.       There   were 


438      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

often  a  good  many  strange  people  following  Christ,  and 
when  he  went  to  a  feast  there  was  no  telling  who  might 
come  in  along  with  him  ;  so  I  suppose  this  poor,  sin- 
ful woman  managed  to  get  in  along  with  the  crowd. 
She  had  an  alabaster  box  full  of  precious  ointment,  but 
her  heart  was  full  of  contrition.  Standing  behind  the 
Saviour  she  bathed  his  feet  with  her  tears,  and  wiped 
them  with  her  long  black  hair.  The  Pharisees  argued 
that  Jesus  could  not  be  a  prophet,  or  he  would  not  have 
suffered  such  a  woman  to  touch  him.  One  of  the  old 
prophets  might  have  pushed  her  away.  But  Jesus  knew 
what  they  were  thinking  of — young  man,  young  woman, 
Pharisee,  God  knows  what  you  are  thinking  of — and  he 
said  unto  them,  "  There  was  a  certain  creditor  which  had 
two  debtors :  the  one  owed  five  hundred  pence,  and  the 
other  fifty;  and  when  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he 
frankly  forgave  them  both.  Tell  me,  therefore,  which  of 
them  will  love  him  most  ?  Simon  answered  and  said,  I 
suppose  that  he  to  whom  he  forgave  most."  "  Thou 
hast  rightly  judged,"  said  Christ  ;  a,nd  then,  after  com- 
paring the  woman's  loving  attentions  with  Simon's  neg- 
lect, he  tells  him  that  her  sins,  which  were  many,  are  all 
forgiven.  And  in  order  that  the  woman  may  get  it  right 
he  turns  around  and  says  the  same  thing  to  her :  "  Thy 
sins  are  forgiven." 

Some  of  you  think  you  have  some  goodness  of  your 
own.  A  good  many  sinners  think  they  can  pay  about 
seventy-five  cents  on  the  dollar ;  some  think  they  can 
pay  ninety-nine  cents,  and  they  hope  to  make  up  the 
other  cent  somehow  :  others  can't  pay  more  than  twenty- 
five  cents  on  the  dollar.     None  of  these  are  in  the  way 


Doctrines — Sin  and  Salvation.  439 

of  being  forgiven  ;  but  when  a  sinner  comes  to  under- 
stand that  he  can't  pay  one-tenth  of  a  mill,  that  he  has 
absolutely  nothing,  and  comes  to  Christ  for  forgiveness, 
Christ  is  ready  to  forgive  him  all. 

How  joyful  that  woman  must  have  gone  out  from  the 
feast!  She  had  come  right  to  the  feet  of  the  Master 
and  he  had  saved  her  from  all  her  sins.  And  you  may 
all  do  the  same  who  hear  me  to-night ;  come  to  the  feet 
of  the  Master  and  he  will  speak  the  word  that  will  make 
you  blessed ! 

There  is  one  thing  I  want  you  to  notice.  We  haven't 
the  name  of  any  of  these  three  fallen  women  that  Jesus 
saved.  People  sometimes  call  societies  for  the  reform 
of  fallen  women  Magdalen  Asylums,  but  there  isn't  a 
word  in  the  Bible  against  the  character  of  Mary  Mag- 
dalene in  this  respect.  It  is  true,  she  had  seven  devils 
cast  out  of  her;  she  might  have  been  a  maniac,  but  I 
don't  think  she  was  a  fallen  woman.  If  she  had  been  I 
don't  think  we  should  ever  have  known  her  name.  Christ 
will  not  tell  their  names  because  he  wants  those  lost 
women  whom  he  saved  to  have  a  place  in  heaven  without 
an)-  one  knowing  of  their  former  sin  and  shame. 

The  next  is  a  careless  woman,  as  perfectly  indifferent 
when  she  first  meets  the  Saviour  as  any  woman  here  to- 
night, who  has  come  to  the  Tabernacle  merely  out  of 
curiosity. 

Mr.  Moody  then  related  the  scene  of  Christ  talking  with  the  woman 
of  Samaria  at  Jacob's  Well,  concluding  with  the  remark  :— 

Just  see  what  that  woman  has  done!  She  has  be- 
lieved on  the  Messiah  herself,  and  brought  a  whole  town 
to  accept  him.     The  Son  of  God  is  not  ashamed  to  talk 


4 

440      Moody :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

with  this  fallen  woman,  and  the  result  of  it  is,  that  she 
and  a  great  many  others  are  saved. 

The  third  case  is  that  of  the  woman  mentioned  in  the 
eighth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  John.  Black,  blacker, 
blackest !  Vile,  viler,  vilest !  This  woman  was  taken  in 
the  very  act  of  adultery,  and  the  Pharisees  brought  her 
to  Christ  to  hear  what  he  would  say  about  her.  The  law 
of  Moses  says  those  who  are  guilty  of  adultery  shall  be 
stoned  to  death,  and  they  brought  this  poor  fallen  woman 
right  before  him  and  demanded  of  him  whether  she 
should  be  stoned.  The  woman  herself  was  overwhelmed 
with  shame  :  it  was  the  first  time  she  had  seen  Christ ; 
it  was  her  first  sight  of  grace  and  truth.  Jesus  stooped 
down  and  wrote  with  his  finger  on  the  ground  ;  I  don't 
know  what  he  wrote  :  perhaps  with  that  same  finger 
that  wrote  the  ten  commandments  he  wrote,  "  The  law 
was  given  by  Moses,  but  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus 
Christ."  Then  he  said  to  the  Pharisees,  some  one  of 
whom  may  have  been  the  first  cause  of  that  poor  woman's 
ruin,  "  He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him  first 
cast  a  stone  at  her."  Then  they  left  him,  one  by  one. 
There  wasn't  a  man  of  them  that  could  throw  a  stone  at 
the  sinner. 

They  brought  the  woman  for  judgment;  ivJiy  didn't 
tlicy  bring  the  man  also  ? 

They  didn't  know  ail  about  that  woman  as  Jesus  did. 
Perhaps  she  hadn't  any  mother,  and  her  step-mother 
had  thrust  her  out  on  to  the  street ;  perhaps  she  had  a 
drunken  father  who  neglected  her,  or  led  her  into  bad 
company;  but  when  Jesus  lifted  up  himself  and  asked 
the  woman.  Where  are  thy  accusers?  there  wasn't  one  of 


Doctrines — Sin  and  Salvation.  441 

them  to  be  found.  The  woman  expected  to  be  stoned 
to  death  ;  but  instead  of  that  she  found  grace  and  good 
counsel :  "  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee  :  go,  and  sin  no 
more." 

If  you  study  the  Bible  you  will  find  that  Christ  took 
sides  with  the  fallen  women  every  time.  You  haven't  got 
a  better  friend  than  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  came  to 
lift  you  up,  and  to  save  you  from  all  your  sins. 

A  poor  lost  woman  came  into  the  inquiry  meeting  the 
other  night,  and  fell  upon  her  face  before  the  Lord  abso- 
lutely speechless  with  penitence  and  distress.  At  last 
she^found  words  to  say,  "Is  there  any  hope  for  me?" 
She  thought  she  was  too  wicked  to  be  saved,  but  after 
forty-eight  hours  of  agony  she  cried  unto  the  Lord  and 
he  heard  and  saved  her.  Let  me  say  to  these  fallen 
women,  Never  leave  this  hall  till  you  have  settled  this 
question  for  eternity.  Never  go  back  again  to  those 
brothels,  where  the  devil  has  it  all  his  own  way  with  you. 
Die  in  the  poor-house  rather  than  earn  your  bread  by 
sin.  Think  of  the  homes  you  have  left,  and  of  the  fathers 
and  mothers  who  mourn  your  loss  and  long  for  your 
return  ;  and  think  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  sinner's 
friend. 

Just  before  I  came  here  to-night  I  received  a  letter 
from  one  of  the  fallen  women.  Thank  God,  his  Spirit 
is  at  work  among  these  poor  sinners  and  victims  of  the 
sins  of  men. 

And   here   I   want   to   say,  the   charge  that  Christian 

women  refuse  to  help  these  fallen  sisters  is  a  false  charge. 

Some  of  the  best  ladies  in  this  city  have  come  to  me  to 

offer  to  go  and  visit  the  women  in  the  brothels,  and  asking 
19* 


442      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

for  their  street  and  number.  I  went  to  the  police  head- 
quarters and  got  all  the  addresses  I  could,  and  now  these 
godly  women  are  visiting  these  places  by  regular  system, 
and  trying  to  lead  these  poor  girls  to  Christ. 

"  Come  right  home  with  me,  and  stay  till  you  can  find 
a  home,"  said  a  lady  to  a  poor  lost  girl  who  was  weeping 
and  praying  in  the  inquiry  room,  and  she  actually  was 
as  good  as  her  word. 

I  hope  there  are  hundreds  of  fallen  women  in  the  hall 
who  will  never  go  back  to  those  places  where  they  have 
lived.  There  is  a  Refuge  ready  for  you,  homes  waiting 
for  you,  and  if  the  Refuge  is  not  large  enough  them'are 
plenty  of  Christian  men  ready  to  make  it  larger. 


HOW   TO   BE   SAVED. 
"  Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  " — Acts  xvi,  30. 

I  LIKE  these  personal  texts.  Let  this  question  go  round 
this  hall  to-night:  "Am  I  saved?"  There  are  a  good 
many  people  here  who  are  anxious  about  their  tem- 
poral salvation  ;  perhaps  they  are  out  of  work,  and  if 
I  were  to  tell  them  that  I  had  employment  for  all  that 
wanted  it,  what  a  crowd  of  people  there  would  be  press- 
ing up  to  the  platform  to  get  it !  But  I  have  something 
better  than  work  to  offer  you  to-night ;  I  come  to  offer 
you  salvation.  Some  of  you  may  have  wrong  ideas  of 
what  you  must  do  to  be  saved.  That  young  man  who 
came  to  Christ  to  know  what  he  must  do  to  inherit  eter- 
nal life  thought  he  was  all  right.  He  had  kept  the  law  ; 
*         but   Christ   put   his   finger  right   on   the   weak   place  in 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  443 

his  nature— his  covetousness — and  the  young  man  went 
away  sad  and  unsaved  ;  he  was  not  willing  to  make  a 
complete  consecration. 

Now  the  law  says,  "  Do  and  live ;  "  grace  says,  "  Live 
and  do."  Salvation  is  a  gift ;  if  it  were  to  be  had  for 
works,  then  it  would  be  a  gift  no  longer.  When  the 
Philippian  jailer  asked  Paul  and  Silas  what  he  must  do 
to  be  saved,  they  didn't  say  to  him,  "Go  work,  go  weep, 
go  pray  ;  "  they  told  him  to  believe. 

I  want  to  make  the  way  very  plain  to-night.  It  is 
very  simple.  You  may  be  saved  right  here  before  you 
go  out  of  this  Tabernacle.  Look  at  the  case  of  that  jailer. 
He  went  to  bed  an  impenitent  sinner,  and  he  was  con- 
victed, converted,  and  he  and  all  his  family  were  baptized 
and  received  into  the  Church  before  sunrise.  Quick  work 
that.  But  if  God  is  going  to  give  us  something,  why 
should  he  be  sjx  months  about  it  ? 

Now,  there  are  two  things  you  can  do  with  your  mind. 
The  first  is,  "  let  go,"  and  the  second  is,  "  lay  hold."  It  is 
like  a  man  I  once  heard  of  who  fell  asleep  in  a  boat,  and 
drifted  down  towards  a  fall,  where  he  must  be  drowned 
if  his  boat  went  over.  He  just  managed  to  reach  the 
high  rocky  shore,  and,  finding  it  too  steep  to  climb,  he 
seized  hold  of  a  little  bush  and  held  on.  When  he  tried 
to  pull  himself  up,  the  twig  began  to  give  way  at  the 
roots,  and  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do  but  cry  for 
help.  By  and  by  people  came  and  threw  him  a  rope,  and 
what  did  he  do?  He  let  go  of  the  bush  and  laid  hold  of 
the  rope,  and  his  friends  drew  him  up  the  cliff  in  safety, 
Now  that  is  just  what  I  am  doing  to-night ;  I  throw  you 
the  rope,  and  if  you  will  let  go  of  all  else  ;uu\  lay  hold  of 


444      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Christ,  you  may  be  hauled  up  out  of  your  sin  and  danger, 
and  place  your  feet  on  the  eternal  rock. 

But  some  one  says,  "  I  don't  see  it."  Well,  let  me  put 
it  in  another  way.  You  believe  that  Christ  is  able  to 
save  you  to-night,  do  you  not  ?  "  O,  yes,  I  believe  he  is 
able."  And  do  you  not  believe  he  is  willing  to  save  you 
to-night?  What  does  the  cross  mean,  what  does  the 
death  of  Christ  mean,  if  he  is  not  willing  to  save  sinners? 
To  be  sure,  he  is  willing  to  save  you  ;  that  is  just  what 
he  came  into  this  world  and  died  for.  Would  he  die  to 
save  sinners  if  he  didn't  wish  to  have  them  saved  ?  Now 
the  question  is,  Are  you  willing?  Salvation  is  offered  you 
as  God's  free  gift.     Will  you  take  it  ? 

The  Scripture  has  another  way  of  putting  the  case : 
"  Look  unto  me  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth,  and  be  ye 
saved."     If  you  cannot  lay  hold,  surely  you  can  look. 

A  lady  I  heard  of  had  a  dream.  She  thought  she  was 
in  a  deep  pit,  trying  to  get  out,  but  after  climbing  up  a 
few  steps  she  would  fall  back  again,  till  at  last,  quite  ex- 
hausted, she  lay  down  in  the  bottom  of  the  pit  to  die. 
As  she  lay  there  she  saw  a  star,  and  as  she  fixed  her  eye 
upon  it  she  felt  it  lifting  her,  lifting  her ;  but,  taking  her 
eye  off  the  star  for  an  instant  to  look  at  herself,  she  fell 
back  to  the  bottom  again.  This  she  did  several  times, 
but  at  length  she  fixed  her  eye  on  the  star,  and  forgot 
every  thing  else,  and  it  lifted  her  up,  and  up,  and  up,  till 
at  last  she  found  herself  standing  safely  on  the  solid 
land.  Then  she  awoke,  and  said  to  herself,  "  I  have  been 
looking  at  myself  long  enough.  Now  I  will  look  at  the 
Star  of  Bethlehem,"  and  in  a  little  while  she  was  happy 
in  Christ. 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  445 

The  Scotch  lassie  who  was  told  to  go  home  and  read 
the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and  pray  to  the  Lord, 
and  he  would  save  her,  answered,  "  I  carina  read  ;  I  canna 
pray.  Jesus,  take  me  just  as  I  am."  Let  that  be  your 
answer.  "Jesus,  take  me  just  as  I  am."  Do  not  go 
away  and  say,  "  I  am  going  to  try."  There  is  no  use 
in  that.  Stop  saying  "Try,"  and  put  the  little  word 
"  Trust  "  in  its  place. 

Four  years  ago  last  Fourth  of  July  two  acquaintances 
of  mine,  both  fine  swimmers,  went  into  the  lake  to  bathe. 
Pretty  soon  one  of  them  called  to  the  other  that  he  was 
drowning.  At  first  he  thought  it  was  all  in  jest,  but  he 
swam  out  to  where  the  drowning  man  was,  who  instantly 
seized  hold  of  him,  and  held  on  with  all  his  might,  and 
they  both  went  down  together.  While  under  the  water 
the  friend  managed  to  get  free,  and  when  they  rose  to 
the  top  he  said,  "If  you  hold  on  to  me  that  way  I  can- 
not savre  you,  but  if  you  will  lie  still  I  can  swim  ashore 
with  you."  The  drowning  man  promised,  but  no  sooner 
did  his  friend  come  within  reach  than  he  seized  him  again, 
and  again  they  went  down.  It  was  only  after  a  desperate 
struggle  under  the  water  that  he  could  get  free  from  the 
poor  man  ;  and  then,  as  they  both  rose  to  the  surface,  he 
was  obliged  to  let  the  poor  fellow  perish  right  before  his 
eyes  because  he  would  not  give  himself  up  to  be  saved 
without  any  efforts  of  his  own.  The  thing  for  you  to  do 
if  you  would  be  saved  is  to  leave  yourself  in  the  hands 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  let  him  save  you. 

But  I  imagine  some  one  saying.  "  If  I  could  only  get 
rid  of  some  of  my  sins  first,  then  I  would  come  to  Christ." 
No,  that  is  not  the  way.     If  you  want  to  cut  down  a  tree, 


446      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

you  do  not  begin  with  the  small  branches.  You  lay  the 
ax  right  to  the  root  of  the  tree. 

Some  years  ago  I  went  down  into  the  country  to  hold 
some  meetings,  and  among  those  who  came  was  a  well- 
dressed  man  in  a  handsome  carriage,  who  I  learned  was 
the  worst  blasphemer  and  opposer  of  religion  in  all  the 
country  round.  He  seemed  to  be  affected  by  the  ser- 
mons, and  I  told  some  of  my  friends  I  was  going  to  see 
him. 

"  You  had  better  not,"  was  the  reply.  "  He  will  only 
curse  you."  / 

"  That  wont  hurt  me  any,"  said  I.  So  I  went  out  to 
his  house  one  day,  and  met  him  coming  out  of  the  gate. 

"  Is  this  Mr.  P ?"  said  I,  calling  him  by  name. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  throwing  himself  on  his  dignity  ;  "  what 
do  you  want  ?  " 

"  I  just  want  to  ask  you  one  question." 

"  Well,  say  on." 

"  I  understand  that  God  has  blessed  you  more  than 
any  other  man  in  all  this  region  ;  that  he  has  given  you 
a  good  wife,  beautiful  children,  a  fine  estate,  and  every 
thing  to  make  you  happy,  and  that  the  only  return  you 
have  ever  made  him  has  been  oaths  and  curses." 

The  man  looked  at  me,  stammered  out  an  answer,  and 
then  said,  "  Come  in."  So  I  went  in,  and  we  talked  of 
his  duty  and  the  way  he  might  be  saved,  and  then  we 
got  down  on  our  knees  and  prayed.  After  prayer  I  said 
to  him,  "  Now,  my  friend,  if  you  are  really  *n  earnest 
about  this,  come  to  church  to-morrow,  and  get  u,p  and  ask 
the  people  to  pray  for  you."  He  made  some  objection 
but  he  did  it,  and  there  went  up  a  crv  of  pravev  for  him 


Doctrines— Sin  and  Salvation.  447 

that  showed  how  deeply  his  request  had  moved  the  hearts 
of  all  the  congregation.  That  same  night  he  was  con- 
verted, and  now  he  is  an  elder  in  the  Church,  and,  from 
being  the  most  dangerous  man,  he  has  come  to  be  the 
most  useful  Christian  in  all  that  region  of  country.  Old 
things  are  passed  away  with  him,  and  all  things  are  be- 
come new. 

"  How  long  have  you  been  a  Christian?"  said  I  to  a 
little  girl  who  was  trusting  in  Christ. 

"  Only  since  last  night." 

"  And  how  do  you  know  that  you  are  saved?" 

"  Jesus  promised  it,"  was  her  reply. 

O  for  simple  faith  in  the  promise  of  Jesus!  "  Believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 

But  some  one  will  say,  What  am  I  to  do  with  all  my 
sins?"  Do  as  Luther  did.  One  night  the  devil  came 
and  wrote  out  a  record  of  his  sins,  which  covered  the 
four  walls  of  his  cell  all  over,  and  then  began  to  mock 
him  with  the  question  what  he  could  do  with  all  that 
load  of  guilt.  But  Luther  answered,  "  Devil,  you  forget 
one  thing.  Just  write  underneath,  'The  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  from  all  sin.' " 


448     Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


LAST   THINGS. 

HEAVEN. 

In  the  East  London  meetings,  before  a  vast  congregation  in  which 
the  lower  classes  predominated,  Mr.  Moody  commenced  by  saying: — 

pThF  I  were  going  to  talk  to  you  to-night  about  America 
@K  all  of  you  would  be  very  anxious  to  hear  what  I  had 
to  say;  but  now  I  am  going  to  talk  to  you  about  heaven 
a  good  many  of  you  wont  care  any  thing  for  it ;  and  yet 
heaven  is  a  great  deal  the  better  place  of  the  two. 

The  Chicago  version  of  this  discourse  is  as  follows  : — - 

I  was  walking  down  to  the  Depot  Church  in  Philadel- 
phia one  night  when  a  friend  said  to  me,  "  Moody,  what 
are  you  going  to  preach  about  to-night  ?  "  I  said  I 
thought  I  would  try  and  preach  about  heaven.  I  no- 
ticed a  little  scowl  came  over  his  face  at  that,  so  I  said, 
"  What  is  the  matter?" 

"  O  !  "  said  he,  "  why  don't  you  give  us  something 
practical  ?  Nobody  knows  any  thing  about  heaven ;  it  is 
all  guess-work  to  preach  about  that." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "if  the  Lord  didn't  mean  us  to  talk- 
about  heaven  he  wouldn't  have  talked  so  much  about  it 
himself."  We  arc  told  that  all  Scripture  is  profitable 
for  doctrine,  and  we  find  that  a  good  deal  of  the  Script- 
ure is  on  the  subject  of  heaven.  Stephen  had  a  glimpse 
of  it,  and  John  had  a  great  revelation  of  it. 

It  would  be  better  if  we   read   more  and  talked  more 


Doctrines — Last  Things.  449 

about  heaven,  for  that  would  help  us  to  cut  loose  from 
this  world,  and  to  set  our  affections  on  things  above. 

If  you  were  going  to  emigrate  to  Russia,  and  I  had 
just  come  from  that  country,  and  was  here  to  lecture 
about  it,  you  would  listen  to  find  out  all  you  could 
about  it :  about  the  soil,  and  the  climate,  and  the  people. 
Now  here  is  an  account  of  heaven  which  is  given  by  One 
who  came  down  from  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  God. 
Besides  that,  there  are  accounts  of  some  of  the  angels 
and  other  people  who  live  there,  and  as  you  all  want  to 
go  to  heaven  some  time  I  think  you  ought  to  be  inter- 
ested to  know  all  about  it. 

First  of  all,  I  want  to  say  that  heaven  is  a  place,  just 
as  much  as  Chicago.  A  pantheist  once  undertook  to  tell 
me  that  God  was  not  in  any  particular  place,  but  that  he 
was  every-where  in  general ;  that  is,  every-where  and  no- 
where. .But  ain-  bod}-  who  is  well  acquainted  with  the 
Bible  knows  that  God  lives  in  heaven. 

Do  you  ask  me  how  far  away  heaven  is? 

Well,  I  don't  know.  The  sun  is  ninety-five  millions 
of  miles  from  Chicago,  but  it  shines  here  every  day.  So 
I  am  sure  that  God.  who  lives  in  heaven,  however  far 
away  it  may  be,  is  able  to  shine  in  upon  us.  His  eye 
sees  us,  and  his  ear  hears  the  faintest  whisper  of  our 
prayers.      He  is  a  God  at  hand,  and  not  afar  off. 

Do  you  want  to  know  who  else  besides  God  is  there? 
The  Bible  says  that  Jesus  Christ  is  there.  His  disciples 
saw  him  ascend  from  mount  Olivet,  and  he  is  there  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father  advocating  our  cause  for  us. 
The  angels  are  there,  and  sometimes  they  come  down  to 
us;   for  we  read  concerning  them,  "  Are  they  not  all  min- 


450     Moody  :  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

istering  spirits  sent  to  minister  unto  the  heirs  of  salva- 
tion." The  saints  are  there.  We  have  an  account  of 
that  in  the  Revelation.  The  little  children  are  there, 
for  the  Scripture  expressly  says,  "  Of  such  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  And  I  hope,  my  friends,  that  some 
time  all  this  congregation  will  be  there. 

Some  people  are  anxious  to  know  whether  they  shall 
recognize  their  friends  in  heaven.  Now  I  will  give  you 
a  passage  of  the  Scripture  that  settles  that  question  for 
me.     It  is  this  : — 

"  I  shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake,  with  thy  likeness." 

I  suppose  that  means  we  are  to  have  every  thing  we 
want.  Do  you  want  to  recognize  your  friends  in  heaven  ? 
Then  you  will  recognize  them. 

Some  man  says,  in  speaking  on  this  subject  :  "I  do 
not  feel  at  all  troubled  about  the  question  of  whether 
I  shall  recognize  my  friends  in  heaven.  I  have  no 
difficulty  in  recognizing  them  here,  and  I  don't  ex- 
pect to  know  any  less  when  I  go  to  heaven  than  I  do 
now." 

In  Luke  "x,  20,  Christ  tells  his  disciples  to  rejoice  be- 
cause their  names  are  written  in  heaven.  I  remember 
how  some  of  us  were  unable  to  find  accommodation  at 
the  Great  North-western  Hotel,  in  Liverpool,  and  we 
asked  one  of  our  party  where  to  go. 

"  I  am  to  stay  there,"  he  said. 

"  How  is  that?" 

"  O  I  sent  on  my  name  in  advance,  and  they  kept  a 
room  for  me  !  " 

That  is  just  how  you  ought  to  do,  my  friends:  send 
up  your  names,  and  have  them  written   in  heaven,  and 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  451 

there  will  be  a  place  all  ready  and  waiting  for  you  when 
you  arrive,  prepared  by  Jesus  Chri.st  himself. 

Now  just  let  this  question  go  around  this  audience: 
"  Is  my  name  written  in  heaven  ?" 

"  O  yes  !  "  says  some  one,  "  I  belong  to  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church." 

Well,  that  is  a  different  thing.  God  keeps  his  books 
altogether  different  from  what  they  keep  the  Church 
books.  Judas  was  one  of  the  twelve.  Satan  himself 
once  sang  halleluiahs  in  glory.  Settle  this  question  with 
yourselves,  and -then  you  who  are  parents  ask  yourselves 
another  question,  "Are  my  children's  names  all  written 
in  heaven  ?  "     If  not,  whose  fault  is  it  ? 

Again  Christ  tells  his  disciples: — 

"  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth, 
where  moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves 
break  through  and  steal :  but  lay  up  for  yourselves  treas- 
ures in  heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  cor- 
rupt, and  where  thieves  do  not  break  through  nor  steal  : 
for  where  your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be  also." 
Some  people  seem  to  think  that  there  are  only  ten 
commandments.  They  forget  the  eleventh,  and  a  great 
main'  others  besides.  Now  these  words-  of  Christ  are 
just  as  much  a  commandment  as  "Thou  shalt  not  steal ;" 
or,  "Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God 
in  vain."  There  are  a  great  main-  sad  hearts  in  Chicago 
because  so  many  people  have  been  breaking  this  com- 
mandment. They  have  been  laying  up  treasures  for  them- 
selves on  earth,  and  the  fire  has  swept  them  away,  or  the 
fall  in  real  estate  has  made  them  poor,  or  they  have  lost 
their  business,  and  they  feel  as  if  they  had  lost  all  they 


452      Moody :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

had  in  the  world.  Their  hearts  are  broken  because  their 
treasure  is  gone ;  but  the  difficulty  was,  they  laid  up 
their  treasure  in  the  wrong  place. 

It  don't  take  long  to  find  out  where  a  man's  heart  is. 
It  is  certain  to  be  along  with  his  treasure.  You  begin 
to  talk  with  some  men  these  days,  and  you  find  them 
all  taken  up  with  politics.  Just  mention  the  names  of 
Hayes  and  Wheeler,  or  Tilden  and  Hendricks,  and  their 
eyes  light  up  at  once.  They  are  full  of  politics :  they 
think  more  about  politics  than  they  do  about  heaven. 
They  talk  more  about  the  presidential  election  than  they 
do  about  the  election  to  eternal  life. 

Why,  my  friends,  perhaps  up  among  the  saints  and 
angels  they  don't  even  know  there  is  going  to  be  an 
election  here,  or  if  they  do  know  it  they  think  of  it  as 
the  merest  trifle,  hardly  worth  a  moment's  notice. 

Then  there  are  others  whose  hearts  are  given  to  pleas- 
ure. You  just  begin  to  talk  to  them  about  the  last  new 
play  at  the  theater,  or  some  dance  or  party,  and  their 
eyes  light  up  immediately. 

Other  people  give  their  hearts  to  their  business.  They 
think  about  it  by  day,  and  dream  about  it  by  night. 
When  they  go  home  from  the  office  they  haven't  any 
time  to  spend  with  their  children,  they  are  so  busy  in 
thinking  how  they  can  make  a  few  thousand  dollars.  It 
is  business,  business,  business  all  the  week,  and  when 
they  go  to  church  and  the  minister  talks  to  them  about 
heaven,  they  go  to  sleep  under  the  sermon,  or  else  they 
go  on  thinking  about  their  business. 

An  acquaintance  of  mine  was  very  fond  of  investing 
his  money  in  real  estate,  and  when  I  asked  him  the  rea- 


Doctrines — Last  Things.  453 

son  of  it  he  said,  "  O,  I  like  to  have  my  property  where 
I  can  sec  it."  And  this  is  one  reason  why  people  don't 
like  to  lay  up  treasure  in  heaven.  They  forget  what  the 
apostle  says,  "  The  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal, 
but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eternal." 

We  have  a  way  of  saying,  "  Such  and  such  a  man  died 
worth  his  millions."  Not  at  all.  The  man  when  he  died 
was  worth  only  what  he  had  laid  up  in  heaven.  If  he 
were  ever  so  rich  in  this  world,  and  hadn't  any  thing  laid 
up  there,  he  actually  died  a  pauper.  His  heirs  and  the 
lawyers  got  all  he  had  in  this  world,  and  when  he  went 
into  the  next  he  was  worth  absolutely  nothing.  Let 
every  one  in  the  house  to-night  ask  himself  this  question, 
Where  is  my  treasure?  Is  it  in  wealth,  in  houses,  in 
lands,  in  money?  Possibly  these  riches  may  take  to 
themselves  wings  and  fly  away.  Is  it  in  reputation  and 
honor?  The  tongue  of  slander  may  ruin  the  one,  and 
you  may  ruin  the  other.  Is  it  love  and  home  and 
friends?     Death  will  come  and  take  them  all  away. 

You  remember  that  just  before  the  great  Chicago  fire 
every  body  was  wild  about  real  estate.  If  a  man  only 
could  get  a  corner  lot  somewhere  he  thought  his  fortune 
was  made.  During  those  days  there  was  a  minister 
down  in  Illinois  who  had  a  son  in  the  real  estate  business 
in  Chicago,  and  the  old  gentleman,  being  out  of  health, 
came  up  to  visit  his  son  and  spend  some  time  with  him. 
He  was  very  much  troubled  to  see  the  young  man  so  en- 
tirely given  up  to  making  money,  and  one  day  he  said 
to  him,  "  I  would  rather  have  standing  room  in  the  New 
Jerusalem  than  all  the  corner  lots  in  Chicago."  Some- 
times when  the  son  was  busy  he  used  to  get  his  father  to 


454      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

stay  in  the  office  for  him,  and  when  people  came  in  to 
talk  about  real  estate,  he  would  show  them  the  lots  that 
were  for  sale,  and  then,  before  they  got  through,  he 
would  always  have  something  to  say  to  them  about  their 
souls.  The  speculating  men  didn't  like  that,  and  the 
young  man  was  obliged  to  send  his  father  out  of  the 
office. 

"We  can't  sell  any  real  estate  while  the  old  gentle- 
man is  there,"  said  he;  "he  is  sure  to  turn  men's  minds 
away  by  talking  to  them  about  treasures  in  heaven." 

I  once  went  out  to  California,  hoping  that  God  would 
give  me  a  few  souls  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  first  Sun- 
day I  was  there  it  rained  ;  but  I  hunted  up  a  Sunday- 
school,  and  found  the  superintendent  just  about  to  dis- 
miss it  because  of  the  small  attendance.  "  I  wouldn't 
do  that,"  said  I,  "but  rather  thank  God  that  so  many 
have  come  out  in  the  rain."  Then  he  asked  me  to  take 
charge  of  the  school,  as  there  were  hardly  any  teachers 
present,  and  I  did  so.  The  lesson  was  this  very  text 
that  we  have  to-night.  So  I  asked  for  some  one  who 
could  write  well  on  the  blackboard,  and  told  him  to  put 
down  in  two  columns  the  different  kinds  of  treasure, 
treasures  on  earth  and  treasures  in  heaven. 

"  What  are  the  earthly  treasures?"  I  asked.  The  first 
answer  was  gold  ;  the  second,  land  ;  the  third,  houses ; 
the  fourth,  horses — for  they  think  a  great  deal  of  fast 
horses  out  there  in  California.  Then  somebody  named 
tobacco.  The  teacher  who  was  writing  did  not  like  to 
write  it,  but  I  said,  "  That  is  one  of  the  treasures  of  this 
world  ;  put  it  down."  Then  some  one  else  mentioned 
rum.     "Yes;  that  is  one  of  the  treasures  of  this  world; 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  '  455 

there  are  thousands  of  people  who  sell  their  souls  and 

bodies  for  rum  ;  put  it  down." 

Here  are  the  two  lists: — 

Earthly  Treasures.  Heavenly  Treasures. 

Gold,  Jesus  our  Saviour, 

Land,  Mansions, 

Houses,  Crowns, 

Fast  Horses,  Peace, 

Tobacco,  Joy, 

Rum.  Love, 

Eternal  Life. 

It  didn't  take  much  preaching  after  that. 

The  man  who  did  the  writing  wasn't  a  Christian.  He 
had  come  out  from  the  East  full  of  a  desire  to  make 
himself  rich  out  of  California  gold,  and  when  he  saw 
these  two  lists  he  was  convicted  on  the  spot  and  con- 
verted to  God  right  there  at  the  blackboard. 

When  people  go  up  in  balloons  they  take  along  a  good 
many  bags  of'sand  for  ballast,  and  when  they  wish  to 
rise  higher  they  throw  out  part  of  the  sand.  That  is 
just  what  is  needed  in  the  case  of  a  good  many  of  this 
congregation.  You  are  weighted  down  with  the  treas- 
ures of  this  world,  and  you  want  to  throw  o^it  more 
ballast.  Give  away  more  of  your  money;  lay  it  up  by 
giving  it  to  the  poor;  and  then,  instead  of  shaming  you 
and  keeping  you  from  rising  to  God,  it  will  be  a  precious 
treasure  waiting  for  you  in  heaven. 

The  next  thing  which  we  have  in  heaven  is,  rest.  It  is 
a  common  mistake  to  think  of  the  Church  as  a  place  of 
rest.  No,  my  friends,  the  Church  is  a  place  for  work. 
"  There  remaineth,  therefore,  a  rest  to  the  people  of 
God."     You  have  got  an  eternity  to  rest  in  ;  surely  you 


456  "    Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

do  not  need  to  rest  in  the  Church.  This  is  the  time  for 
hard  work,  and  that  ought  to  be  a  joy  to  you  ;  for  your 
work  in  the  Church  may  add  to  the  joy  of  heaven.  The 
Scripture  says,  "  There  is  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner 
that  repenteth." 

You  have  heard  of  that  great  rich  farmer  in  this  State 
who  gave  his  check  for  ten  thousand  dollars  to  the  Chris- 
tian Commission.  When  he  had  done  it  he  took  the 
agent  of  the  Commission  up  to  the  top  of  his  house,  and 
showed  him  his  farm  stretching  in  every  direction  as  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach.  "  All  that  you  see  is  mine,"  said 
the  farmer,  proudly. 

"And  what  have  you  got  up  yonder?" 

"  Well,  I  don't  know  as  I  have  any  thing  laid  up  in 
heaven." 

"  Is  it  possible?  A  man  of  your  sagacity  to  lay  up  all 
your  treasure  where  you  will  have  to  leave  it  all  behind 
you  in  a  little  while  !  " 

Before  long  that  man  died  as  he  had  lived  ;  and  what 
a  poor,  poor  man  he  must  have  found  himself  when  he 
came  up  before  God  to  give  account  of  his  stewardship  ! 

Mr.  Moorehouse  was  telling  me  that  he  once  saw  a 
water-logged  vessel  coming  up  the  Mersey  to  Liverpool. 
It  was  loaded  with  lumber  and  couldn't  sink,  but  it  was 
down  to  the  rail  in  the  water,  and  had  to  be  hauled  up 
to  the  dock  by  a  steam-tug.  Just  at  the  same  time  an- 
other timber-laden  vessel  came  up  the  river  with  all  sail 
set ;  and  Mr.  Moorehouse  said,  "  I  thought  those  two 
vessels  were  like  two  kinds  of  people  we  have  in  the 
Church.  There  are  the  worldly  professors  of  religion, 
who  are  so  deep  down   in  the  cares  of  this  life  that  it 


Doctrines — Last  Things.  457 

takes  all  the  power  of  the  Church  to  drag  them  along. 
They  are  water-logged  ;  out  of  all  sympathy  with  the 
work  of  the  Church  ;  full  of  complaints  about  the  minis- 
ter and  the  members,  and  have  to  be  taken  care  of  very 
tenderly  to  save  them  from  going  down  altogether. 
Give  me  the  Christian  whose  heart  is  above  the  world, 
whose  sails  are  filled  with  the  gales  of  grace,  and  who, 
by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  sweeps  through  the 
stormy  waters  of  this  life  right  up  to  the  port  of  heaven. 


HELL. 

"  But  Abraham  said,  Son,  remember  that  thou  in  thy  life-time  receivedst 
thy  good  things,  and  likewise  Lazarus  evil  things  :  but  now  he  is  com- 
forted, and  thou  art  tormented." — Lukk  xvi,  25. 

A  MAN  came  to  me  the  other  day  and  said :  "  I  like 
your  preaching.  You  don't  preach  hell,  and  I  suppose 
you  don't  believe  in  one."  Now  I  don't  want  any  one 
to  rise  up  in  the  judgment  and  say  that  I  was  not  a 
faithful  preacher  of  the  word  of  God.  It  is  my  duty  to 
preach  God's  word  just  as  he  gives  it  to  me  ;  I  have  no 
right  to  pick  out  a  text  here  and  there,  and  say,  "  I  don't 
believe  that."  If  I  throw  out  one  text  I  must  throw 
out  all,  for  in  the  same  Bible  I  read  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments, heaven  and  hell. 

No  one  ever  drew  such  a  picture  of  hell  as  the  Son  of 
God.  No  one  could  do  it,  for  he  alone  knew  what  the 
future  would  be.  lie  didn't  keep  back  this  doctrine  <>t 
retribution,  but  preached  it  out  plainly;  preached  it,  too, 
with  pure  love,  just  as  a  mother  would  warn  her  son  of 

the  end  of  his  course  of  sin. 
20 


458     Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

The  Spirit  of  God  tells  us  that  we  shall  carry  our 
memory  with  us  into  the  other  world.  There  are  many 
things  Ave  would  like  to  forget.  I  have  heard  Mr.  Gough 
say  he  would  give  his  right  hand  if  he  could  forget  how 
badly  he  had  treated  his  mother.  I  believe  the  worm 
that  dieth  not  is  our  memory.  We  say  now  that  we  for- 
get, and  we  think  we  do ;  but  the  time  is  coming  when 
we  shall  remember,  and  cannot  forget.  We  talk  about 
the  recording  angel  keeping  record  of  our  life.  God 
makes  us  keep  our  own  record. 

We  wont  need  any  one  to  condemn  us  at  the  bar  of 
God  :  it  will  be  our  own  conscience  that  will  come  up  as 
a  witness  against  us.  God  wont  condemn  us  at  his  bar ; 
we  shall  condemn  ourselves.  Memory  is  God's  officer, 
and  when  he  shall  touch  these  secret  springs  and  say, 
"  Son,  daughter,  remember" — then  tramp,  tramp,  tramp 
will  come  before  us,  in  a  long  procession,  all  the  sins  we 
have  ever  committed. 

I  have  been  twice  in  the  jaws  of  death.  Once  I  was 
drowning,  and  was  about  to  sink,  when  I  was  rescued. 
In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  every  thing  I  had  said,  done, 
or  thought  of  flashed  across  my  mind.  I  do  not  under- 
stand how  every  thing  in  a  man's  life  can  be  crowded 
into  his  recollection  in  an  instant  of  time,  but  it  all 
flashed  through  my  mind  at  once.  Another  time  I  was 
caught  in  the  Clark-street  bridge,  and  thought  I  was 
dying.  Then  memory  seemed  to  bring  all  my  life  back 
to  me  again.  It  is  just  so  that  all  things  we  think  we 
have  forgotten  will  come  back  by  and  by.  It  is  only  a 
question  of  time.  We  shall  hear  the  words,  "  Son,  re- 
member ;"  and  it  is  a  good  deal  better  to  remember  our 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  459 

sins  now,  and  be  saved  from  them,  than  to  put  off  re- 
pentance till  it  is  too  late  to  do  any  good. 

The  scientific  men  say  that  every  thought  comes  back 
again,  sooner  or  later.  I  heard  of  a  servant  girl  whose 
master  used  to  read  Hebrew  in  her  hearing,  and  some 
time  afterward,  when  she  was  sick  of  a  fever,  she  would 
talk  Hebrew  by  the  hour. 

Do  you  think  Cain  has  forgotten  the  face  of  his  mur- 
dered brother,  whom  he  killed  six  thousand  years  ago? 
Do  you  think  Judas  has  forgotten  that  kiss  with  which 
he  betrayed  his  Master,  or  the  look  that  Master  gave 
him  as  he  said,  "  Betrayest  thou  the  Son  of  man  with  a 
kiss?"  Do  you  think  these  antediluvians  have  forgot- 
ten the  ark,  and  the  flood  that  came  and  swept  them  all 
away  ?  • 

My  friends,  it  is  a  good  thing  to  be  warned  in  time. 
Satan  told  Eve  that  she  should  not  surely  die ;  and  there 
are  many  men  and  women  now  who  think  that  all  souls 
will  at  last  be  saved  in  spite  of  all  their  sins. 

Do  you  suppose  those  antediluvians  who  perished  in 
Noah's  day — those  men  too  vile  and  sinful  for  the  world — 
do  you  think  God  swept  those  men  right  into  heaven,  and 
left  Noah,  the  only  righteous  man,  to  struggle  through 
the  deluge?  Do  you  think  when  the  judgment  came 
upon  Sodom  that  those  wicked  men  were  taken  right 
into  the  presence  of  God,  and  the  only  righteous  man 
was  left  behind  to  suffer? 

There  will  be  no  tender,  loving  Jesus  coming  and  of- 
fering you  salvation  there;  no  loving  wife  or  mother  to 
pray  for  you  there.  Many  in  that  lost  world  would  give 
millions,  if  they   had    them,   if  they  had    their   mothers 


460     Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

to  pray  them  out  of  that  place ;  but  it  will  be  too  late. 
They  have  been  neglecting  salvation  until  the  time  has 
come  when  God  says,  "  Cut  them  down ;  the  day  of 
mercy  is  ended." 

You  laugh  at  the  Bible  ;  but  how  many  there  are  in 
that  lost  world  to-day  who  .would  give  countless  treas- 
ures if  they  had  the  blessed  Bible  there!  You  may 
make  sport  of  ministers,  but  bear  in  mind  there  will  be 
no  preaching  of  the  Gospel  there.  Here  they  are  God's 
messengers  to  you — loving  friends  that  look  after  your 
soul.  You  may  have  some  friends  praying  for  your  sal- 
vation to-day ;  but  remember,  you  will  not  have  one  in 
that  lost  world.  There  will  be  no  one  to  come  and  put 
his  hand  on  your  shoulder  and  weep  over  you  there  and 
invito  you  to  come  to  Christ. 

There  are  some  people  who  ridicule  these  revival  meet- 
ings, but  remember,  there  will  be  no  revivals  in  hell. 

There  was  a  man  in  an  insane  asylum  who  used  to 
say  over  to  himself  in  a  voice  of  horror,  "  If  I  only 
had —  "  He  had  been  in  charge  of  a  railway  drawbridge, 
and  had  received  orders  to  keep  it  closed  until  the  pas- 
sage of  an  extra  express  train  ;  but  a  friend  came  along 
with  a  vessel,  and  persuaded  him  to  open  the  bridge  just 
for  him,  and  while  it  was  open  the  train  came  thundering 
along,  and  leaped  into  destruction.  Many  were  killed, 
and  the  poor  bridge-tender  went  mad  over  the  result  of 
his  own  neglect  of  duty.     "  If  I  only  had  !  " 

A  good  man  was  one  day  passing  a  saloon  as  a  young 
man  was  coming  out,  and  thinking  to  make  sport  of  him 
he  called  out,  "Deacon,  how  far  is  it  to  hell?"  The 
deacon  gave  no  answer,  but  after  riding  a  few  rods   he 


Doctrines — Last  Things.  461 

turned  to  look  after  the  scoffer,  and  found  that  his  horse 
had  thrown  him  to  the  ground  and  broken  his  neck.  I 
tell  you,  my  friends,  I  would  sooner  give  that  right  hand 
than  to  trifle  with  eternal  things. 

To-night  you  may  be  saved.  We  are  trying  to  win 
you  to  Christ,  and  if  you  go  down  from  this  building  to 
hell  you  will  remember  the  meetings  we  had  here.  You 
will  remember  how  these  ministers  looked,  how  the  peo- 
ple looked,  and  how  it  has  seemed  sometimes  as  if  we 
were  in  the  very  presence  of  God  himself.  In  that  lost 
world  you  wont  hear  that  beautiful  hymn,  "  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth Passeth  By."  He  will  have  passed  by.  There  will 
be  no  Jesus  passing  that  way.  There  will  be  no  sweet 
songs  of  Zion  there.  No  little  children  either  to  pray  for 
their  impenitent  fathers  and  mothers. 

It  is  now  a  day  of  grace  and  a  day  of  mercy.  God  is 
calling  the  world  to  himself.  He  says,  "  I  have  no  pleas- 
ure in  the  death  of  the  wicked  ;  but  that  the  wicked  turn 
from  his  way  and  live  ;  turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for  why  will  ye 
die?" 

O,  if  you  neglect  this  salvation,  how  shall  you  escape? 
What  hope  is  there  ?  May  your  memories  be  wide 
awake  to-day,  and  may  you  remember  that  Christ  stands 
right  here!  He  is  in  this  assembly,  offering  salvation  to 
every  soul.  He  is  not  willing  that  any  should  perish, 
but  turn  to  him  and  live. 

When  I  was  at  the  Paris  Exhibition,  in  1867,  I  noticed 
there  a  little  oil-painting,  only  about  a  foot  square,  and 
the  face  was  the  most  hideous  I  had  ever  seen.  It  was 
said  to  be  about  seven  hundred  years  old.  On  the  paper 
attached  to   the  painting   were  the  words,  "  Sowing  the 


4C2      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

tares."  The  face  looked  more  like  a  demon's  than  a 
man's,  and  as  he  sowed  these  tares,  up  came  serpents  and 
reptiles ;  they  were  crawling  up  on  his  body ;  and  all 
around  were  woods  with  wolves  and  animals  prowling  in 
them.  I  have  seen  that  picture  many  times  since.  Ah  ! 
the  reaping  time  is  coming.  If  you  sow  to  the  flesh  you 
must  reap  corruption.  If  you  sow  to  the  wind  you  must 
reap  the  whirlwind.  God  wants  you  to  come  to  him  and 
receive  salvation  as  a  gift :  you  can  decide  your  destiny 
to-day  if  you  will.  Heaven  and  hell  are  set  before  this 
audience,  and  you  are  called  upon  to  choose.  Which 
will  you  have  ?  If  you  will  take  Christ  he  will  receive 
you  to  his  arms;  if  you  reject  him  he  will  reject  you. 

Now,  my  friends,  will  Christ  ever  be  more  willing  to 
save  you  than  he  is  now?  Will  he  ever  have  more 
power  than  he  has  now  ?  Why  not  make  up  your  mind 
to  be  saved  while  mercy  is  offered  to  you  ? 

I  remember  a  few  years  ago,  while  the  Spirit  of  God 
was  working  in  my  Church,  I  closed  the  meeting  one 
night  by  asking  any  that  would  like  to  become  Christians 
to  rise,  and,  to  my  great  joy,  a  man  arose  who  had  been 
anxious  for  some  time.  I  went  up  to  him  and  took  him 
by  the  hand  and  shook  it,  and  said,  "  I  am  glad  to  see 
you  get  up.  You  are  coming  out  for  the  Lord  now  in 
earnest,  are  you  not  ?  " 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  think  so.  That  is,  there  is  only 
one  thing  in  my  way." 

"  What's  that?"  said  I. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  I  lack  moral  courage.  I  confess  to 
you  that  if  such  a  man  [naming  a  friend  of  his]  had 
been  here  to-night  I  should  not  have  risen.     He  would 


Doctrines — Last  Things.  463 

laugh  at  me  if  he  knew  of  this,  and  I  don't  believe  I  have 
the  courage  to  tell  him." 

"  But,"  said  I,  "  you  have  got  to  come  out  boldly  for 
the  Lord  if  you  come  out  at  all." 

While  I  talked  with  him  he  was  trembling  from  head 
to  foot,  and  I  believe  the  Spirit  was  striving  earnestly 
with  him.  He  came  back  the  next  night,  and  the  next, 
and  the  next;  the  Spirit  of  God  strove  with  him  for 
weeks ;  it  seemed  as  if  he  came  to  the  very  threshold  of 
heaven,  and  was  almost  stepping  over  into  the  blessed 
world.  I  never  could  find  out  any  reason  for  his  hesita- 
tion, except  that  he  feared  his  old  companions  would 
laugh  at  him. 

At  last  the  Spirit  of  God  seemed  to  leave  him  ;  convic- 
tion was  gone.  Six  months  from  that  time  I  got  a 
message  from  him  that  he  was  sick  and  wanted  to  see 
me.  I  went  to  him  in  great  haste.  He  was  very  sick, 
and  thought  lie  was  dying.  He  asked  me  if  there  was 
any  hope.  Yes,  I  told  him,  God  had  sent  Christ  to  save 
him  ;  and  I  prayed  with  him. 

Contrary  to  all  expectations  he  recovered.  One  day  I 
went  down  to  see  him.  It  was  a  bright,  beautiful  day, 
and  he  was  sitting  out  in  front  of  his  house. 

"  You  are  coming  out  for  God  now,  aren't  you?  You 
will  be  well  enough  soon  to.  come  back  to  our  meetings 
again." 

''Mr.  Moody,"  said  he,  "  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to 
become  a  Christian.  My  mind  is  fully  made  up  to  that, 
but  I  wont  be  one  just  now.  I  am  going  to  Michigan  to 
buy  a  farm  and  settle  down,  and  then  I  will  become  a 
Christian." 


464      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

"  But  you  don't  know  yet  that  you  will  get  well." 

"  O,"  said  he,  "  I  shall  be  perfectly,  well  in  a  few  days. 
I  have  got  a  new  lease  of  life." 

I  pleaded  with  him,  and  tried  every  way  to  get  him  to 
take  his  stand.  At  last  he  said,  "  Mr.  Moody,  I  can't  be 
a  Christian  in  Chicago.  When  I  get  away  from  Chicago, 
and  get  to  Michigan,  away  from  my  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances, who  laugh  at  me,  I  will  be  ready  to  go  to  Christ." 

"If  God  has  not  grace  enough  to  save  you  in  Chicago, 
he  has  not  in  Michigan,"  I  answered. 

At  last  he  got  a  little  irritated  and  said,  "  Mr.  Moody, 
I'll  take  the  risk,"  and  so  I  left  him. 

I  well  remember  the  day  of  the  week,  Thursday,  about 
noon,  just  one  week  from  that  very  day,  when  I  was  sent 
for  by  his  wife  to  come  in  great  haste.  I  hurried  there 
at  once.  His  poor  wife  met  me  at  the  door,  and  I  asked 
her  what  was  the  matter. 

'■  My  husband,"  she  said,  "has  had  a  relapse;  I  have 
just  had  a  council  of  physicians  here,  and  they  have  all 
given  him  up  to  die." 

"  Does  he  waiffto  see  me?"  I  asked. 

"  No." 

"  Then  why  did  you  send  for  me  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  bear  to  see  him  die  in  this  terrible  state  of 
mind." 

"  What  does  he  say?"  I  asked. 

"  He  says  his  damnation  is  sealed,  and  he  will  be  in 
hell  in  a  little  while." 

I  went  in,  and  he  at  once  fixed  his  eyes  upon  me.  I 
called  him  by  name,  but  he  was  silent.  I  went  around 
to  the  foot  of  the  bed,  and  looked  in  his  face  and  said, 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  4^5 

11  Wont  you  speak  to  me?"  and  at  last  he  fixed  that  ter- 
rible deathly  look  upon  me  and  said, 

"  Mr.  Moody,  you  need  not  talk  to  me  any  more.  It 
is  too  late.  You  can  talk  to  my  wife  and  children  ;  pray 
for  them  ;  but  my  heart  is  as  hard  as  the  iron  in  that 
stove  there.  My  damnation  is  sealed,  and  I  shall  be  in 
hell  in  a  little  while." 

I  tried  to  tell  him  of  Jesus'  love  and  God's  forgiveness, 
but  he  said,  "  Mr.  Moody,  I  tell  you  there  is  no  hope  for 
me."  And  as  I  fell  on  my  knees,  he  said,  "  You  need 
not  pray  for  me.  My  wife  will  soon  be  left  a  widow  and 
my  children  will  be  fatherless  ;  they  need  your  prayers, 
but  you  need  not  pray  for  me." 

I  tried  to  pray,  but  it  seemed  as  if  my  prayers  didn't 

go  higher  than  my  head,  and  as  if  heaven  above  me  was 

like  brass.     The  next  day,  his  wife  told  me,  he  lingered 

until  the  sun  went  down,  and  from  noon  until  he  died 

all  he  was  heard  to  say  was,  "The  harvest  is  past,  the 

summer  is  ended,  and  I  am  not  saved."     After  lingering 

along  for  an  hour  he  would  say  again  those  awful  words, 

and  just   as   he  was   expiring   his  wife   noticed  his  lips 

quiver,  and  that  he  was  trying  to  say  something,  and  as 

she  bent  over  him  she  heard  him  mutter,  "The  harvest 

is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  I  am  not  saved."     He 

lived  a  Christless  life;   he  died  a  Christless  death;   we 

wrapped  him  in  a  Christless  shroud,  and  bore  him  away 

to  a  Christless  grave. 

Are  there  some  here  that  are  almost  persuaded  to  be 

Christians?     Take   my  advice   and   don't  let   any  thing 

keep  you  away.     Fly  to  the  arms  of  Jesus  this  hour. 

You  can  be  saved  if  you  will. 
20* 


466      Moody:  his  Words — Works — Workers. 

Mr.  Moody  closed  by  reading  the  following  piece  of  poetry,  which, 
he  said,  had  affected  him  deeply : — 

"  I  sat  alone  with  my  conscience, 

In  a  place  where  time  was  o'er, 
And  we  talked  of  my  former  living 

In  the  land  of  the  evermore  ; 
And  I  felt  I  should  have  to  answer 

The  question  it  put  to  me, 
And  to  face  the  answer  and  question 

Throughout  an  eternity. 

'  The  ghosts  of  forgotten  actions 

Came  floating  before  my  sight, 
And  things  that  I  thought  had  perished 

Were  alive  with  a  terrible  might. 
And  the  vision  of  life's  dark  record 

Was  an  awful  thing  to  face — 
Alone  with  my  conscience  sitting 

In  that  solemnly  silent  place. 

"  And  I  thought  of  a  far-away  warning, 

Of  a  sorrow  that  was  to  be  mine, 
In  a  land  that  then  was  the  future, 

But  now  is  the  present  time. 
And  I  thought  of  my  former  thinking 

Of  the  judgment-day  to  be, 
But  sitting  alone  with  my  conscience 

Seemed  judgment  enough  for  me. 

"  And  I  wondered  if  there  was  a  future 

To  this  land  beyond  the  grave ; 
But  no  one  gave  me  an  answer, 

And  no  one  came  to  save. 
Then  I  felt  that  the  future  was  present, 

And  the  present  would  never  go  by. 
For  it  was  but  the  thought  of  a  future 

Become  an  eternity. 

"  Then  I  woke  from  my  timely  dreaming, 

And  the  vision  passed  away, 
And  I  knew  the  far-away  warning 

Was  a  warning  of  yesterday  ; 
And  I  pray  that  I  may  not  forget  it, 

In  this  land  before  the  grave, 
That  I  may  not  cry  in  the  future, 

And  no  one  come  to  save. 


Doctrines — Last  Things.  467 

I  have  learned  a  solemn  lesson 

Which  I  ought  to  have  known  before. 
And  which,  though  I  learned  it  dreaming, 

I  hope  to  forget  no  more. 

'  So  I  sit  alone  with  my  conscience 

In  the  place  where  the  years  increase, 
And  I  try  to  fathom  the  future 

In  the  land  where  time  will  cease ; 
And  I  know  of  the  future  judgment, 

How  dreadful  soe'er  it  be, 
That  to  sit  alone  with  my  conscience 

Will  be  judgment  enough  for  me." 


THE   RETURN   OF   OUR   LORD. 

In  2  Timothy  iii,  16,  Paul  declares:  "All  Scripture  is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness ;"  but  there  are  some  people  who  tell  us  when  we  take 
up  prophecy  that  it  is  all  very  well  to  be  believed,  but  that 
there  is  no  use  in  trying  to  understand  it :  these  future 
events  are  things  that  the  Church  doesn't  agree  about, 
and  it  is  better  to  let  them 'alone,  and  deal  only  with  those 
prophecies  which  have  already  been  fulfilled.  But  Paul 
doesn't  talk  that  way  ;  he  says  :  "  All  Scripture  is  .  .  . 
profitable  for  doctrine."  If  these  people  are  right,  he  ought 
to  have  said  :  "Some  Scripture  is  profitable  ;  but  you  can't 
understand  the  prophecies,  so  you  had  better  let  them 
alone."  If  God  didn't  mean  to  have  us  study  the  prophe- 
cies he  wouldn't  have  put  them  into  the  Bible.  Some  of 
them  are  fulfilled,  and  he  is  at  work  fulfilling  the  rest,  so 
that  if  we  do  not  see  them  all  completed  in  this  life,  we 
shall  in  the  world  to  come. 

I  don't  want  to  teach  any  thing  to-day,  dogmatically,  on 


468      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

my  own  authority  ;  but  to  my  mind  this  precious  doctrine 
— for  such  I  must  call  it — of  the  return  of  the  Lord  to  this 
earth  is  taught  in  the  New  Testament  as  clearly  as  any 
other  doctrine  in  it  ;  yet  I  was  in  the  Church  fifteen  or 
sixteen  years  before  I  ever  heard  a  sermon  on  it.  There 
is  hardly  any  Church  that  doesn't  make  a  great  deal  of 
baptism,  but  the  New  Testament  only  speaks  about  bap- 
tism thirteen  times,  while  it  speaks  of  the  return  of  our 
Lord  fifty  times  ;  and  yet  the  Church  has  had  very  little 
to  say  about  it. 

Now  I  can  see  a  reason  for  this  :  the  devil  does  not 
want  us  to  see  this  truth,  for  nothing  would  wake  up  the 
Church  so  much.  The  moment  a  man  takes  hold  of  the 
truth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  coming  back  again  to  receive 
his  friends  to  himself,  this  world  loses  its  hold  upon  him  ; 
gas-stocks,  and  water-stocks,  and  stocks  in  banks  and  in 
horse  railroads,  are  of  very  much  less  consequence  to  him 
then.  His  heart  is  free,  and  he  looks  for  the  blessed  ap- 
pearing of  his  Lord,  who  at  his  coming  will  take  him  into 
his  blessed  kingdom. 

In  2  Peter  i,  20,  we  read  :  "  No  prophecy  of  the  Script- 
ure is  of  any  private  interpretation."  Some  people  say, 
"  O  yes,  the  prophecies  are  all  well  enough  for  the  priests 
and  doctors,  but  not  for  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Church." 
But  Peter  says,  "  The  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by 
the  will  of  man  :  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  those  men  are  the  very 
ones  who  tell  us  of  the  return  of  our  Lord.  Look  at  Dan- 
iel ii,  45,  where  he  tells  us  the  meaning  of  that  stone  which 
the  king  saw  in  his  dream  that  was  cut  out  of  the  mount- 
ain without  hands,  and  that  brake  in  pieces  the  iron,  the 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  469 

brass,  the  clay,  the  silver,  and  the  gold.  "  The  dream  is 
certain,  and  the  interpretation  thereof  sure,"  says  Daniel. 
Now  we  have  seen  the  fulfillment  of  that  prophecy,  all 
but  the  closing  part  of  it.  The  kingdoms  of  Babylon,  and 
Medo-Persia,  and  Greece,  and  Rome,  have  all  been  broken 
in  pieces,  and  now  it  only  remains  for  this  Stone  cut  out 
of  the  mountain  without  hands  to  smite  the  image  and 
break  it  in  pieces  till  it  becomes  like  the  dust  of  the  sum- 
mer threshing-floor,  and  for  this  Stone  to  become  a  great 
mountain  and  fill  the  whole  earth. 

But  how  will  he  come  ?  We  are  told  how  he  will  come. 
When  those  disciples  stood  looking  up  to  heaven  at  the 
time  of  his  ascension,  there  appeared  two  angels,  who  said 
unto  them,  ^Aets  i,  11,)  *' Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand 
ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  This  same  Jesus,  which  is 
taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  man- 
ner as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven."  How  did  he 
go  up?  He  took  his  flesh  and  bones  up  with  him.  "  Look 
at  me  ;  handle  me  ;  give  me  something  to  eat  ;  a  spirit 
has  not  flesh  and  bones  as  ye  see  me  have  ;  I  am  the  iden- 
tical one  whom  they  crucified  and  laid  in  the  grave.  Now 
I  am  risen  from  the  dead,  and  am  going  up  to  heaven." 

An  angel  was  sent  to  announce  his  birth  of  the  Virgin  ; 
angels  .sang  of  his  advent  in  Bethlehem  ;  an  angel  told  the 
women  of  his  resurrection  ;  and  two  angels  told  the  dis- 
ciples of  his  coming  again.  It  is  the  same  kind  of  tes- 
timony in  all  these  cases. 

I  don't  know  why  people  shouldn't  like  to  study  the  Bible, 
and  find  out  all  about  this  precious  doctrine  of  our  Lord's 
return.  Some  have  gone  beyond  prophecy,  and  tried  to 
tell  the  very  day  he  would  come.     Perhaps   that    is  one 


4/0      Moody  :  ins  Words— Work — Workers. 

reason  why  people  don't  believe  this*doctrine.  That  he  is 
coming,  we  know  ;  but  just  when  he  will  come  we  don't 
know.  Matthew  xxiv,  36,  settles  that.  The  angels  don't 
know,  and  Christ  says  that  even  he  doesn't  know;  that 
is  something  the  Father  keeps  to  himself. 

If  Christ  had  said,  "  I  will  not  come  back  for  two  thou- 
sand years,  none  of  his  disciples  would  have  begun  to 
watch  for  him  ;  but  it  is  the  proper  attitude  of  a  Christian 
to  be  always  looking  for  his  Lord's  return.  So  God  does 
not  tell  us  when  he  is  to  come,  but  Christ  tells  us  to 
watch.  In  this  same  chapter  we  find  that  he  is  to  come 
unexpectedly  and  suddenly.  In  the  twenty-seventh  verse 
we  have  these  words :  "  For  as  the  lightning  cometh  out 
of  the  east,  and  shineth  even  unto  the  west ;  so  shall  also 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be."  And  again  in  the 
forty-fourth  verse:  "  Therefore  be  ye  also  ready;  for  in 
such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not  the  Son  of  man  cometh." 
Some  people  say  that  means  death  ;  but  the  word  of  God 
doesn't  say  it  means  death.  Death  is  our  enemy,  but  our 
Lord  hath  the  keys  of  death  ;  he  has  conquered  death, 
hell,  and  the  grave,  and  at  any  moment  he  may  come  to 
set  us  free  from  death,  and  destroy  our  last  enemy  for  us  ; 
so  the  proper  state  for  a  believer  in  Christ  is  waiting  and 
watching  for  his  Lord's  return. 

In  the  last  chapter  of  John  there  is  a  text  that  seems  to 
settle  this  matter.  Peter  asks  the  question  about  John, 
"  Lord,  and  what  shall  this  man  do  ?  Jesus  said  unto  him, 
If  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that  to  thee? 
Follow  thou  me.  Then  went  this  saying  abroad  among 
the  brethren,  that  that  disciple  should  not  die."  They 
didn't  think  that  the  coming  of  the   Lord  meant  death  • 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  471 

there  was  a  great  difference  between  these  two  things  in 
their  minds.  'Christ  is  the  prince  of  life;  there  is  no 
death  where  he  is  ;  death  flees  at  his  coming  ;  dead  bodies 
sprang  to  life  when  he  touched  them  or  spoke  to  them. 
His  coming  is  not  death  :  he  is  the  resurrection  and  the 
life,  and  when  he  sets  up  his  kingdom  there  is  to  be  no 
death,  but  life  for  evermore. 

There  is  another  mistake,  you  will  find,  if  you  read  your 
Bibles  carefully.  Some  people  think  that  at  the  coming  of 
Christ  every  thing  is  to  be  all  done  up  in  a  few  minutes  ; 
but  I  do  not  so  understa^l  it.  The  first  thing  he  is  to  do 
is  to  take  his  Church  out  of  the  world.  He  calls  the 
Church  his  bride,  and  he  says  he  is  going  to  prepare  a 
place  for  her.  "  We  may  judge,"  says  one,  "  what  a  glori- 
ous place  it  will  be  from  the  length  of  time  he  is  in  pre- 
paring it  ;  and  when  the  place  is  ready  he  will  come  and 
take  the  Church  to  himself." 

Toward  the  close  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  First  Thes- 
salonians  Paul  says:  "If  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and 
rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God 
bring  with  him.  .  .  .  We  which  are  alive  and  remain  unto 
the  coming  of  the  Lord  shall  not  prevent  them  which  are 
asleep.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven 
with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the 
trump  of  God  :  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first : 
then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up 
together  with  them  in  the  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the 
air  :  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.  Wherefore, 
comfort  one  another  with  these  words."  That  is  the  com- 
fort of  the  Church.  There  was  a  time  when  I  used  to 
mourn  that  I  should  not  be  alive  in  the  millennium  ;  but 


472       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

now  I  expect  to  be  in  the  millennium.  Dean  Alford  says 
—  almost  every  body  bows  to  him  in  the  matter  of  inter- 
pretation—that he  must  insist  that  this  coming  of  Christ 
to  take  his  Church  to  himself  in  the  clouds  is  not  the  same 
event  as  his  coming  to  judge  the  world  at  the  last  day. 
The  deliverance  of  the  Church  is  one  thing,  judgment  is 
another.  Now,  I  can't  find  any  place  in  the  Bible  where 
it  tells  me  to  wait  for  signs  of  the  coming  of  the  mil- 
lennium, as  the  return  of  the  Jews,  and  such  like;  but  it 
tells  me  to  look  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  ;  to  watch 
for  it  ;  to  be  ready  at  midnigh^to  meet  him,  like  those 
five  wise  virgins.  The  trump  of  God  may  be  sounded, 
for  any  thing  we  know,  before  I  finish  this  sermon  ;  at  any 
rate  we  are  told  that  he  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night, 
and  at  an  hour  when  many  look  not  for  him. 

Some  of  you  may  shake  your  heads  and  say,  "  O,  well, 
that  is  too  deep  for  the  most  of  us  ;  such  things  ought  not 
to  be  said  before  these  young  converts  ;  only  the  very 
wisest  characters,  such  as  the  ministers  and  the  professors 
in  theological  seminaries,  can  understand  them."  But, 
my  friends,  you  find  that  Paul  wrote  about  these  things  to 
those  young  converts  among  the  Thessalonians,  and  he 
tells  them  to  comfort  one  another  with  these  words.  Here 
in  the  first  chapter  of  First  Thessalonians  Paul  says,  "Ye 
turned  to  God  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God  ; 
and  to  wait  for  his  Son  from  heaven,  whom  he  raised  from 
the  dead,  even  Jesus,  which  delivered  us  from  the  wrath 
to  come."  To  wait  for  his  Son  ;  that  is  the  true  attitude 
of  every  child  of  God.  If  he  is  doing  that  he  is  ready  for 
the  duties  of  life,  ready  for  God's  work;  aye,  that  makes 
him  feel  that  he   is  just  ready  to  begin  to  work  for  God. 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  473 

Then  in  the  second  chapter  and  nineteenth  verse  he  says  : 
"  For  what  is  our  hope,  or  joy,  or  crown  of  rejoicing  ?  Are 
not  even  ye  in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at 
his  coming?"  And  again,  in  the  third  chapter,  at  the 
thirteenth  verse,  "To  the  end  that  he  may  establish  your 
hearts  unblamable  in  holiness  before  God,  even  our  Father, 
at  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  his  saints." 
Still  again,  in  the  fifth  chapter  and  second  verse,  "For  ye 
yourselves  know  perfectly  that  the  day  of  the  Lord  so 
cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night."  He  has  something  to  say 
about  this  same  thing  in  every  chapter  ;  indeed,  I  have 
thought  this  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  might  be  called 
the  Gospel  of  Christ's  Coming  Again. 

There  are  three  great  facts  foretold  in  the  word  of  God  \ 
First,  that  Christ  should  come  ;  that  has  been  fulfilled. 
Second,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  should  come  ;  that  was  ful- 
filled at  Pentecost,  and  the  Church  is  able  to  testify  to  it 
by  its  experience  of  his  saving  grace.  Third,  the  return 
of  our  Lord  again  from  heaven  :  for  this  we  are  told  to 
watch  and  wait  "till  he  come."  Look  at  that  account  of 
the  last  hours  of  Christ  with  his  disciples.  What  does 
Christ  say  to  them  ?  If  I  go  away  I  will  send  death  after 
you  to  bring  you  to  me  ?  Not  at  all.  He  says,  "  I  will 
come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself."  If  my  wife  were 
in  a  foreign  country,  and  I  had  a  beautiful  mansion  all 
ready  for  her,  she  would  a  good  deal  rather  I  should  come 
and  take  her  unto  it  than  to  have  me  send  some  one  else 
to  bring  her.  So  the  Church  is  the  Lamb's  wife  ;  he  has 
prepared  a  mansion  for  his  bride,  and  he  promises  for  our 
joy  and  comfort  that  he  will  come  himself  and  take  us  to 
the  place  he  has  been  all  this  while  preparing. 


474       Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

My  friends,  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  take  the  word  of  God 
just  as  we  find  it.  If  he  tells  us  to  watch,  then  watch. 
If  he  tells  us  to  pray,  then  pray.  If  he  tells  us  he  will 
come  again,  wait  for  him.  Let  the  Church  bow  to  the 
word  of  God,  rather  than  be  trying  to  find  out  how  these 
things  can  be.  "  Behold,  I  come  quickly,"  said  Christ. 
"  Even  so  ;  come,  Lord  Jesus,"  should  be  the  prayer  of  the 
Church. 

Take  the  account  of  the  words  of  Christ  at  the  commun- 
ion table.  It  seems  to  me  the  devil  has  covered  up  the 
most  precious  thing  about  it.  "  For  as  often  as  ye  eat  this 
bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death 
////  he  come"  Most  people  seem  to  think  that  the  Lord's 
table  is  the  place  for  self-examination  and  repentance,  and 
making  good  resolutions.  Not  at  all  ;  you  spoil  it  that 
way  ;  it  is  to  show  forth  the  Lord's  death  ;  and  we  are  to 
keep  it  up  till  he  comes. 

Some  people  say,  "I  believe  Christ  will  come  on  the 
other  side  of  the  millennium."  Where  do  you  get  it  ?  I 
can't  find  it.  The  word  of  God  nowhere  tells  me  to  watch 
and  wait  for  the  coming  of  the  millennium,  but  for  the 
coming  of  the  Lord.  I  don't  find  any  place  where  God 
says  the  world  is  to  grow  better  and  better,  and  that  Christ 
is  to  have  a  spiritual  reign  on  earth  of  a  thousand  years. 
I  find  that  the  earth  is  to  grow  worse  and  worse,  and  that 
at  length  there  is  going  to  be  a  separation.  "  Two  women 
grinding  at  a  mill  ;  one  taken  and  the  other  left ;  two  men 
in  one  bed,  one  taken  and  the  other  left."  The  Church  is 
to  be  translated  out  of  the  world  ;  raid  of  this  we  have 
two  examples  already,  two  representatives,  as  we  might  say? 
in  Christ's  kingdom,  of  what  is  to  be  done  for  all  his  true 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  475 

believers.  Enoch  is  the  representative  of  the  first  dis- 
pensation, Elijah  of  the  second,  and  as  the  representative 
of  the  third  dispensation  we  have  the  Saviour  himself,  who 
is  entered  into  the  heavens  for  us,  and  become  the  first- 
fruits  of  them  that  slept.  We  are  not  to  wait  for  the  great 
white-throne  judgment,  but  the  glorified  Church  is  sit  on 
the  throne  with  Christ,  and  help  to  judge  the  world. 

Now,  some  of  you  think  this  is  a  new  and  strange  doc- 
trine, and  that  they  who  preach  it  are  speckled  birds  ;  but 
let  me  tell  you  that  most  of  the  spiritual  men  in  the  pulpits 
of  Great  Britain  are  firm  in  this  faith.  Spurgeon  preaches 
it.  I  have  heard  Newman  Hall  say  that  he  knew  no 
reason  why  Christ  might  not  come  before  he  got  through 
with  his  sermon.  But  in  certain  wealthy  and  fashionable 
Churches,  where  they  have  the  form  of  godliness  but  deny 
the  power  thereof — just  the  state  of  things  which  Paul  de- 
clares shall  be  in  the  last  days — this  doctrine  is  not 
preached  or  believed.  They  don't  want  sinners  to  cry 
out  in  their  meeting,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?" 
They  want  intellectual  preachers,  who  will  cultivate  their 
taste  ;  brilliant  preachers,  who  will  please  their  imagina- 
tion ;  but  they  don't  want  the  preaching  that  has  in  it  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  live  in  the  day  of  shams 
in  religion.  The  Church  is  cold  and  formal ;  may  God 
wake  us  up!  And  I  know  of  no  better  way  to  do  it  than 
to  set  the  Church  to  looking  for  the  return  of  our  Lord. 

Some  people  say,  "  O,  you  will  discourage  the  young 
converts  if  you  preach  that  doctrine."  Well,  my  friends, 
that  hasn't  been  my  experience.  I  have  felt  like  working 
three  times  as  hard  ever  since  I  came  to  understand  that 
my  Lord  was  coming  back  again.     I  look  on  this  world  as 


476      Moody  :  ins  Words — Work — Workers. 

a  wrecked  vessel.  God  has  given  me  a  life-boat,  and  said 
to  me,  "  Moody,  save  all  you  can."  God  will  come  in  judg- 
ment and  burn  up  this  world,  but  the  children  of  God 
don't  belong  to  this  world  ;  they  are  in  it,  but  not  of  it, 
like  a  ship  in  the  water.  This  world  is  getting  darker  and 
darker  ;  its  ruin  is  coming  nearer  and  nearer  ;  if  you  have 
any  friends  on  this  wreck  unsaved  you  had  better  lose  no 
time  in  getting  them  off.  But  some  one  will  say,  "  Do  you, 
then,  make  the  grace  of  God  a  failure  ? "  No  ;  grace  is 
not  a  failure,  but  man  is.  The  antediluvian  world  was  a 
failure  ;  the  Jewish  world  was  a  failure  ;  man  has  been  a 
failure  every- where,  when  he  has  had  his  own  way  and 
been  left  to  himself.  Christ  will  save  his  Church,  but  he 
will  save  them  finally  by  taking  them  out  of  the  world. 
Now,  don't  take  my  word  for  it ;  look  this  doctrine  up  in 
your  Bibles,  and,  if  you  find  it  there,  bow  down  to  it  and 
receive  it  as  the  word  of  God.  Take  Matthew  xxiv,  50 : 
"  The  Lord  of  that  servant  shall  come  in  a  day  when  he  look- 
eth  not  for  him,  and  in  an  hour  that  he  is  not  aware  of,  and 
shall  cut  him  asunder,  and  appoint  him  his  portion  with 
the  hypocrites  :  there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of 
teeth."  Take  2  Peter  iii,  3,5:"  There  shall  come  in  the 
last  days  scoffers,  walking  after  their  own  lusts,  and  say- 
ing, Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming?  for  since  the 
fathers  fell  asleep  all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the 
beginning  of  the  creation."  Go  out  on  the  streets  of 
Chicago  and  ask  men  about  the  return  of  our  Lord,  and 
that  is  just  what  they  would  say :  "Ah,  yes,  the  Lord  de- 
layeth  his  coming  !  " 

"Behold,  1  come  quickly,"  said  Christ  to  John,  and  the 
last  prayer  in  the  Bible  is,  "  Even  so,  come  Lord  Jesus." 


Doctrines— Last  Things.  477 

Were  the  early  Christians  disappointed  then  ?  Xo  ;  no 
man  is  disappointed  who  obeys  the  voice  of  God.  The 
world  waited  for  the  first  coming  of  the  Lord — waited  for 
four  thousand  years,  and  then  he  came.  He  was  here  only 
thirty- three  years,  and  then  he  went  away  ;  but  he  left  us 
a  promise  that  he  would  come  again  ;  and  as  the  world 
watched  and  waited  for  his  first  coming  and  did  not  watch 
in  vain,  so  now  to  them  who  wait  for  his  appearing  shall 
he  appear  a  second  time  unto  salvation. 

Now  let  the  question  go  round,  "Am  I  ready  to  meet 
the  Lord  if  he  comes  to-night  ? "  "  Be  ye  also  ready,  for  in 
such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not  the  Son  of  man  cometh." 

In  the  third  verse  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John 
Christ  tells  his  disciples  :  "  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a 
place  for  you  I  will  come  again,  and  receive  you  unto  my- 
self." I  like  that  text.  What  we  want,  and  what  the 
Church  wants,  is  to  be  looking  for  Christ's  coming  again. 
We  are  nowhere  told  in  the  word  of  God  to  be  looking 
for  death,  but  wc  are  told  to  be  watching  for  the  coming 
of  the  Son  of  man. 

Some  people  think  wc  are  to  look  for  the  restoration  of 
the  Jews,  and  the  millennium,  before  the  second  coming 
of  Christ,  but  the  Bible  don't  say  so.  There  is  no  com- 
mand in  the  Bible  for  looking  after  the  coming  of  the 
Jews,  or  the  millennium,  but  we  are  commanded  to  watch, 
"  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  man  com- 
eth." and  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  do  what  the  word  of  God 
commands  us  to  do.  If  the  Church,  instead  of  looking- 
for  the  Jews  to  be  restored  were  only  watching  ami  wait- 
ing for  the  Lord  to  return,  as  he  says  he  will,  there  would 
be  a  great  deal  more  life  and  power  among  its  members. 


478      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

There  is  another  thought  I  want  to  call  your  attention 
to,  and  that  is,  Christ  will  bring  all  our  friends  with  him 
when  he  comes.  All  who  have  died  in  the  Lord  are  to 
be  with  him  when  he  comes  in  the  clouds  of  heaven. 
"  Blessed  and  holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in* the  first  resur- 
rection :  on  such  the  second  death  hath  no  power,  but 
they  shall  be  priests  of  God  and  of  Christ,  and  shall  reign 
with  him  a  thousand  years."  Rev.  xx,  6.  "  But  the  rest 
of  the  dead  lived  not  again  until  the  thousand  years  were 
finished.  This  is  the  first  resurrection."  Verse  5.  That 
looks  as  if  the  Church  were  to  have  a  thousand  years  with 
Christ  before  the  final  judgment,  when  Satan  shall  be  cast 
out,  and  there  shall  be  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

Now  I  want  to  give  you  some  texts  to  study  at  home  : 

When  we  eat  the  Lord's  supper,  we  show  forth  his 
death  until  he  come.   1  Cor.  xi,  26. 

We  are  using  our  talents,  until  he  come.  Luke  xix,  13. 

Wc  are  fighting  the  good  fight  of  faith,  until  he  come. 

1  Tim.  vi,  12-14. 

We  are  enduring  tribulation,  until  he  come.  2  Thess.  i,  7. 

We  are  to  be  patient,  until  he  come.  James  v,  8. 

We  wait  for  the  crown  of  righteousness,  until  he  come. 

2  Tim.  iv,  8. 

We  wait  for  the  crown  of  glory,  until  he  come.  1  Peter 
v,  4. 

We  wait  for  re-union  with  departed  friends,  until  he 
come.   1  Thess.  iv,  13-18. 

We  wait  for  Satan  to  be  bound,  until  he  come.  Rev. 
xx,  3. 

"Even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus!" 


PART    IV. 
MR  MOODY'S  CO-WORKERS. 


"BISHOP"    MOODY. 

§  NY  one  who  ever  saw  Brother  Moody,  during  his  early 
life  in  Chicago,  sitting  in  that  abandoned  saloon-shanty 
on  the  North  Side,  holding  a  small  colored  boy  on  his  lap, 
and  trying,  by  the  light  of  one  tallow  candle,  to  teach  the  little 
fellow  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son — the  teacher  himself 
having  to  stop  now  and  then  to  spell  out  the  long  words,  and 
being  obliged  to  skip  some  of  them  altogether — would  have 
been  surprised  to  learn  that  this  man  was  one  day  to  become 
a  bishop ! 

"Bishop"  Moody!  Not  over  a  diocese,  organized  in  the 
usual  form  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  nor  yet  a  general  superin- 
tendent, after  the  manner  of  the  Methodists  ;  but  a  bishop  of 
Christian  workers,  with  a  company  of  the  leading  evangelists, 
both  from  England  and  America,  preaching  and  teaching  and 
singing  under  his  direction  ;  for  whose  services  he  receives 
applications,  and  whom  he  assigns  to  fields  of  labor  with  a 
wisdom  thought  by  many  to  be  inspired  of  God,  and  an  au- 
thority undisputed  by  man. 

More  than  this,  Mr.  Moody  is,  to  some  extent,  personally 
responsible  for  the  support  of  these  evangelists,  whom,  by  the 
direction  of  the  Lord  and  the  exercise  of  a  consummate  judg- 
ment, he  has  called  to  his  assistance. 

To  some  of  these  persons  he  has  paid  a  regular  salary; 
others  have  shared  with  him  in  the  gifts  of  the  people;  and 


480      Moody  :  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

still  others,  who  have  some  resources  of  their  own,  have  been 
authorized  to  draw  on  his  treasury  to  supply  any  short-com- 
ings in  the  supply  of  their  needs. 

In  view  of  these  facts  two  questions  have  arisen  :  First, 
How  does  Mr.  Moody  get  his  men  and  women  ?  and,  second, 
Where  does  he  get  his  money? 

Both  these  questions  admit  of  the  same  answer:  From  the 
Lord.  * 

There  is  a  very  large  class  of  Christian  people  who  believe 
that  Mr.  Moody  is  a  prophet  of  God,  raised  up  to  be  the 
leader  of  a  new  religious  movement,  which  movement  has 
come  to  be  a  necessity  from  the  constantly  increasing  materi- 
alism and  formalism  which  have  cursed  the  doctrines  and 
methods  of  the  Church.  The  means  of  God's  providence  are 
always  sufficient  for  their  ends :  thus,  the  necessary  funds 
for  sustaining  this  work,  as  well  as  the  right  people  to  do  it, 
come  into  Mr.  Moody's  hands,  and  act  under  his  direction, 
by  providential  leadings. 

When  Mr.  Moody  finds  workers  in  any  of  his  departments 
who  appear  to  him  pre-eminently  fitted  therefor  he  gives 
them  a  call  to  join  him,  and  that  call  is  rarely  refused.  It  is 
regarded  as  a  privilege  and  honor,  among  a  large  class  of 
Christian  people,  to  work  under  his  direction  ;  and  devout 
men  and  women  are  not  wanting  who  feel  moved  to  place  a 
portion  of  their  wealth  at  his  disposal  to  help  on  his  various 
enterprises  in  connection  with  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Moody  asks  no  money  for  himself,  but  during  the  past 
three  years  he  has  raised  not  far  from  half  a  million  of  dol- 
lars for  various  Christian  works  in  which  he  feels  an  especial 
interest;  notably,  for  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions in  London,  Liverpool,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and 
Chicago. 

His  methods  are  apostolic.  He  has  read  that  the  Saviour 
sent  out  his  disciples  two  by  two,  therefore  he  enlists  Mr. 
Sankey  as  a  comrade  for  himself,  and  sends  out  his  helpers 
two  by  two,  as  far  as  possible. 

Besides  this  evangelistic  work  there  are   two  large  places 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  481 

of  worship  in  the  city  of  Chicago  under  his  immediate  control, 
known  respectively  as  "Mr.  Moody's  North  Side  Church," 
and  "Mr.  Moody's  West  Side  Tabernacle,"  the  pastors  and 
congregations  of  which  acknowledge  him  as  their  ecclesias- 
tical head  as  well  as  their  leader  in  spiritual  things. 

Here,  then,  is  a  system  with  Mr.  Moody  for  its  apostle, 
whereby  it  appears  that  he  has  already  achieved  the  sub- 
stance if  not  the  form  and  name  of  an  evangelistic  bishop.    , 

In  the  authority  with  which  he  directs  his  great  evangel- 
istic campaigns  also  appears  something  very  like  the  exercise 
of  episcopal  functions.  For  instance,  at  a  recent  ministers 
meeting  in  Boston  the  question  was  under  consideration 
whether  to  appoint  a  number  of  noonday  prayer-meetings  in 
different  parts  of  the  city  and  suburbs.  When  many  eminent 
clergy  had  spoken,  it  was  agreed  that  //  Mr.  Moody  would 
send  men  to  take  charge  of  the  various  meetings  the  people 
would  attend  them,  but.  if  not  the  meetings  would  fail. 

No   evangelist  ever   received  such   universal   and   cordial 
support  from    the  ministers  of  all  evangelical  orders:   they 
believe  that  Cod  is  with  him,  and   for  that  reason   they  aid 
him  with  money,  labor,  and  prayer. 
21 


482      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 


IRA    D.    SANKEY. 

Ira  David  Sankey  was  born  in  Edinburgh,  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  year  1840.  His  paternal  ancestors  were  English:  his 
mother's  family  originally  from  the  north  of  Ireland.  His 
father  was  an  influential  man  in  the  State,  being  for  a  length 
of  time  a  member  of  the  lower,  and  afterward  of  the  upper, 
house  of  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania;  while  his  wealth 
and  influence  made  him  an  exceedingly  useful  member  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  which  he  was  also  leader 

and  exhorter. 

Very  early  in  his  childhood  the  wonderful  gift  of  song  with 
which  God  has  endowed  Mr.  Sankey  began  to  manifest  itself. 
In  the  day-school  and  in  the  Sunday-school  his  was  a  leading 
voice.  He  was  full  of  music,  and  sensitive  to  musical  im- 
pressions. Tunes  which  he  once  heard  he  could  sing  again; 
and  before  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age  he  began  to  compose 
tunes  for  himself. 

He  was  converted  in  his  sixteenth  year,  during  a  series  of 
revival  meetings,  and,  with  a  large  number  of  others,  was  re- 
ceived as  a  probationer  at  King's  Chapel,  Edinburgh,  Penn- 
sylvania; but  before  his  term  of  probation  expired  the  fam- 
ily removed  to  Newcastle,  in  the  same  State,  where  he  was 
received  into  full  membership  in  the  Jefferson-street  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  When  about  twenty  years  of  age 
he  was  elected  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  he  commenced  his  solo  singing— singing  the 
Gospel,  as  he  is  now  accustomed  to  call  it — which,  from 
the  first,  proved  a  very  great  attraction.  Largely  because 
of  this  new  means  of  grace  the  school  was  soon  filled  to 
overflowing,  and  presently  became  famous  for  its  musical 
acquirements. 

Not  long  after  this  he  was  appointed  to  the  leadership  of 
a  class  of  sixty  or  eighty  men  and  women;  a  responsibility 
which  led  him  to  a  closer  study  of  the  Bible,  and  to  a  habit 


IK  A    1).    BANKBY, 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  483 

of  measuring  his  own  state  of  grace  by  Scripture  tests  rather 
than  by  his  feelings,  or  by  the  experiences  of  others.  Tin's 
idea  he  sought  to  impress  upon  his  class,  saving  :  "  Tell  us 
your  condition  in  Bible  language.  The  Scriptures  abound 
with  accounts  of  religious  experience.  There  is  no  state  of 
grace  which  may  not  be  described  by  a  text." 

During  the  winter  of  1867  a  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation was  organized  at  Newcastle,  in  which  Mr.  Sankey 
was  an  active  worker,  and  of  which  he  afterward  became 
president. 

His  musical  ability  made  his  services  in  great  request  at 
conventions,  mass  meetings,  and  other  public  religious  serv- 
i<  es,  both  to  conduct  the  music  of  the  congregation  and  to 
sing  his  admirable  solos,  which  became  extremely  popular. 
His  singing  was  a  part  of  his  religion  ;  he  was  accustomed  to 
pray  over  it  as  a  minister  prays  over  his  sermons;  and  thus 
receiving  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  was  enabled  to 
lead  thousands  to  understand  and  join  in  the  service  of  song 
as  they  had  never  done  before. 

At  the  International  Convention  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  held  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  early  in  1871,  Mr. 
Sankey  first  met  Mr.  Moody. 

Their  interview  was  characteristic,  and  took  place  at  one 
of  the  meetings  of  the  Convention,  where  Mr.  Sankey  had 
lifted  the  singing  from  the  customary  slow  drawl  into  one  of 
his  own  heavenward  flights  of  song.  At  the  close  of  the  serv- 
ices Mr.  Moody  saluted  him  with  the  question, 

"  Where  do  you  live  ?" 

"  In  Newcastle,  Pennsylvania,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Are  you  married  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  How  many  children  have  you  ?" 

"One  child." 

"  I  want  you." 

"What  for?" 

"  To  help  me  in  my  work  at  Chicago." 

"  I  cannot  leave  my  business." 


484      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

"  You  must.  I  have  been  looking  for  you  for  the  last 
eight  years.  You  must  give  up  your  business,  and  come  to 
Chicago  with  me." 

Mr.  Sankey  replied  that  he  would  think  and  pray  over  the 
matter,  and  see  what  the  Lord  would  direct.  It  was  no 
small  sacrifice  for  him  to  resign  his  profitable  situation,  break 
up  his  home,  go  to  a  strange  city,  and  unite  his  fortunes 
with  a  man  of  whom  he  knew  so  little,  but  whom  he  under- 
stood to  be  wholly  given  to  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  ready 
to  go  at  a  moment's  notice  any  where  in  the  world  on  a  mis- 
sion in  his  name.  But  feeling  that  the  invitation  from  Mr. 
Moody  might  be  a  call  from  Heaven,  he  determined  to  go  to 
Chicago  for  a  week  and  labor  with  him,  hoping  the  Lord 
would  there  more  clearly  indicate  his  will. 

The  result. of  that  week's  work  was  the  union  of  these  two 
men  in  a  brotherhood  which  is  now  known  all  over  the 
Christian  world,  the  Lord  honoring  his  word  by  bringing 
multitudes  of  sinners  to  Christ  through  the  ministry  of  both 
speaker  and  singer. 

Mr.  Moody  having  determined  upon  a  third  visit  to  En- 
gland, induced  Mr.  Sankey  to  accompany  him,  where  the 
blessing  which  attended  his  gospel  singing  abundantly  proved 
the  divine  approval  of  his  labors. 

At  York,  the  first  field  of  labor  in  England,  the  singing  of 
Mr.  Sankey  made  a  profound  impression. 

One  instance  is  related  of  a  woman  who  was  deeply  con- 
victed of  sin  while  listening  to  one  of  these  hymns  in  the 
street,  and  who,  on  asking  and  obtaining  an  interview  with 
the  singer,  was  led  immediately  to  the  Saviour 

When  the  evangelists  proposed  to  visit  Scotland,  one  of 
the  apparent  difficulties  in  the  way  was  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Sankey  did  not  sing  according  to  the  Scottish  tradition.  In 
the  first  place,  he  sang  but  few  of  the  psalms  at  all ;  and 
those  he  did  sing  were  not  in  the  accepted  versions.  But 
the  chief  abomination  was  the  "  kist  fu'  o'  whustles,"  with 
which  he  accompanied  his  voice  ;  and  which,  by  universal 
consent,  had  been  kept  out  of  Scottish  sanctuaries  for  more 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  485 

than   three  hundred  years.     Nevertheless,  the  Lord  opened 

his  way  to  the  hearts  of  that  people,  and  from  Edinburgh  to 
John  o'  Groat's  House  Moody  and  Sankey  went,  preaching 
and  singing  to  crowds  of  people  under  the  sky,  the  only 
roof  large  enough  to  cover  them;  Mr.  Moody  being  every- 
where regarded  as  a  prophet  of  the  Lord  sent  to  bless  his 
people  in  Scotland,  and  Mr.  Sankey,  notwithstanding  his  or- 
gan, being  received  as  an  humble  successor  of  the  Psalmist 
himself. 

Occasionally  some  of  the  elders  of  the  Highland  Churches 
felt  a  little  troubled  about  Mr.  Sankey's  hymns,  so  unlike  the 
psalms  in  Rouse's  version.  One  of  them  came  to  his  pastor 
with  no  little  anxiety,  saying,  "  I  cannot  do  with  the  hymns. 
They  are  all  the  time  in  my  head,  and  I  cannot  get  them  out. 
The  psalms  never  trouble  me  that  way." 

"  Then  1  think  you  should  keep  to  the  hymns,"  said  the 
pastor. 

One  day,  while  in  the  Highlands,  Mr.  Sankey  found  in  the 
corner  of  a  newspaper  that  beautiful  hymn,  "The  Ninety 
and  Nine."  The  melody  to  which  he  sings  it  came  to  him 
like  an  inspiration,  and  he  sang  it  for  the  first  time  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  congregation,  without  ever  having  written 
it  out.  This  was  the  favorite  of  all  of  Mr.  Sankey's  songs  in 
Scotland,  as  it  also  came  to  be  through  England  and  Ireland. 
Mr.  Sankey  relates  this  touching  incident  in  connection 
with  this  hymn  after  their  return  to  America  : — 

"  While  we  were  holding  meetings  in  Northfield,  Mass.,  the 
home  of  Mr.  Moody,  at  the  close  of  a  service  a  gentleman 
took  me  by  the  hand  and  said,  with  deep  emotion,  '  When 
you  came  here  last  year  I  did  not  believe  in  religion,  and 
would  not  attend  your  meetings.  But  one  evening,  when  the 
audience  was  too  large  for  the  church,  Mr.  Moody  held  the 
meeting  in  the  open  air.  I  was  sitting  under  the  porch  of 
my  house,  on  the  mountain  side,  across  the  river,  and  the  still 
air  of  evening  wafted  to  me  a  line  of  your  song,  "  Rejoice, 
for  the  Lord  brings  back  his  own."  Then  I  knew  that  on 
that  mountain  side  the  good  Shepherd  was  looking  for  me; 


485      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

but  I  said,  I  would  not  be  caught  by  Moody  and  Sankey,  so 
I  still  kept  away  from  the  meetings.  But  the  influence  re- 
mained, and  after  you  were  gone  I  went  to  the  church,  and 
the  good  Shepherd  found  me  ;  and  now  I,  with  my  family, 
belong  to  this  Church.' 

"When  I  heard  that,  I  said  to  myself,  I  will  keep  on  sing- 
ing this  little  song,  since  the  Lord  is  still  using  it  to  bring 
back  the  wanderers  to  his  fold." 

At  the  Christian  Convention  which  was  held  in  Chicago, 
one  subject  was,  "  How  shall  the  music  be  conducted  in  the 
Lord's  work  ?  "  Mr.  Sankey  opened  the  discussion  by  urg- 
ing the  need  of  Christian  singing.  "  Those  who  love  Christ," 
said  he,  "  should  lead  in  the  service  of  song  as  well  as  in  the 
service  of  preaching  or  prayer."  His  preference  was  for  a 
large  choir,  to  lead,  not  to  sing  for,  the  congregation  ;  but 
he  had  no  prejudice  against  quartettes,  provided  they  were 
Christian  singers,  and  sung  in  the  spirit  of  worship. 

The  question  was  asked,  "  What  would  you  do  if  you  could 
not  get  Christian  people  to  make  up  your  choir  ?  " 

Mr.  Sankey  replied  that  he  would  go  down  into  the  Sabbath- 
school  and  bring  the  best  singers  among  the  scholars  up  stairs, 
and  set  them  to  lead  the  singing.  The  effect  would  be  to 
get  hearty  and  inartistic  singing,  and  it  would  often  encour- 
age the  congregation  to  join,  because  the  class  of  hymns 
likely  to  be  sung  would  be  those  simpler  ones  which  all  could 
sing.  Again,  this  course  would  be  a  great  encouragement  to 
the  Sabbath-school  itself,  so  that  we  should  see  the  children 
coming  from  the  Sabbath-school  up  into  the  Church  instead 
of  going  away  from  the  preaching  of  the  word. 

Another  essential  of  good  singing,  Mr.  Sankey  thought, 
was  the  plain  pronunciation  of  the  words  of  the  hymn.  He 
had  often  heard  singing  where  a  person  who  didn't  know 
what  the  hymn  was  couldn't  understand  a  word  of  it.  One 
of  the  most  important  things  to  be  rigidly  insisted  upon  was 
plain  speaking.  In  fact,  the  singing  of  hymns  in  a  voice  that 
could  not  be  understood  was  barbarous,  and  to  prove  this  the 
speaker  quoted   the   following:   "So  likewise  ye,   except  ye 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  487 

utter  by  the  tongue  words  easy  to  be  understood,  how  shall  it 
be  known  what  is  spoken?  for  ye  shall  speak  into  the  air. 
There  are,  it  may  be,  so  many  kinds  of  voices  in  the  world, 
and  none  of  them  is  without  signification.  Therefore  if  I 
know  not  the  meaning  of  the  voice,  I  shall  be  unto  him  that 
speaketh  a  barbarian,  and  he  that  speaketh  shall  be  a  bar- 
barian unto  me.  .  .  .  What  is  it  then  ?  I  will  pray  with  the 
spirit,  and  I  will  pray  with  the  understanding  also  :  1  will  sing 
with  the  spirit,  and  I  will  sing  with  the  understanding  also." 
i  Cor.  xiv,  9-1 1,  15. 

This  is  a  marked  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Sankey's  own  singing; 
every  syllable  can  be  clearly  heard  throughout  the  great  halls 
in  which  he  is  accustomed  to  sing ;  every  sentiment  of  his 
hymns  is  thrillingly  rendered. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  departure  of  the  evangel- 
ists from  Chicago  a  most  delightful  farewell  entertainment 
was  given  to  Mr.  Sankey  by  Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  Edwards,  editor 
of  the  North-western  Christian  Advocate,  at  which 
many  of  the  clergymen  and  leading  laymen  of  the  city  met  to 
enjoy  a  final  interview  with  the  genial  and  gifted  singer,  and 
to  testify  their  appreciation  of  his  work. 

Mr.  Sankey's  life  is  a  psalm  replete  with  loving  melo- 
dies, while  his  brotherly  and  winning  address  opens  the 
door  of  many  closed  hearts  to  the  entering  footsteps  of  the 
Saviour. 

At  the  opening  of  the  revival  work  in  Boston  Mr.  Sankey 
at  once  became  a  favorite  with  the  people.  It  was  plainly 
seen  that  he  was  not  and  did  not  pretend  to  be  an  artist  in 
music;  but  his  ambition  was  a  higher  one — he  aspired  to  a 
song-ministry,  a  preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  tune  and  rhythm. 
There  is  no  break  in  the  flow  of  devotional  feeling  where  his 
solo  comes  in  :  it  belongs  with  the  Scripture  reading,  the 
prayer,  and  the  sermon.  It  is  not  a  musical  performance, 
but  a  musical  exhortation. 

At  the  New  England  Christian  Convention,  held  in  the 
Boston  Tabernacle,  March  14-16,  Mr.  Sankey  rendered  good 
service.     The  east  winds  have  not  agreed  very  well  with  his 


488      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

voice,  but  he  has  manfully  kept  at  his  post,  and  aided  by  his 
presence  and  counsels  in  the  service  of  song. 

This  little  extract  from  one  of  the  Boston  reports  will  help 
to  give  the  reader  a  glimpse  of  the  spirit  of  the  singer  as 
well  as  the  nature  of  his  songs  : — 

At  one  of  the  Tabernacle  meetings  Mr.  Sankey  made  an 
address  in  place  of  a  song,  saying  that  he  was  too  hoarse  to 
sing.  He  said  that  a  lady  had  given  him  a  thought  in  regard 
to  the  well  of  living  waters.  Some  people,  she  said,  seem  to 
give  at  once  to  those  with  whom  they  talk  that  which  helps 
and  comforts  them,  while  others  are  unable  to  do  so.  She 
told  him  that  when  a  little  girl  she  had  a  garden,  which, 
despite  good  soil  and  continual  watering,  did  not  flourish. 
Her  mother  asked  her  about  her  flowers,  and  was  told  that 
they  did  not  grow.  Her  mother  soon  learned  the  reason. 
She  had  drawn  the  water  from  a  cold  spring  when  she  should 
have  taken  it  from  some  sunlit  place.  So  it  is  when  we  try  to 
give  the  people  the  water  of  life.  If  we  give  it  out  from  cold 
hearts  it  will  chill  rather  than  invigorate.  Let  us  all  learn 
the  lesson,  and  infuse  more  life  into  our  work,  and  so  have 
the  word  in  the  heart  as  well  as  in  the  mouth. 

Dr.  Eben  Tourjee,  the  leader  of  the  chorus,  has  achieved 
success  in  his  department  of  the  revival  work,  and  the  sacred 
concerts,  as  they  might  be  called,  with  which  the  principal 
services  are  opened,  are  of  themselves  great  attractions,  and 
are  in  no  small  degree  in  keeping  with  the  public  interest 
in  the  Moody  and  Sankey  revival  meetings. 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  489 


MR.    AND    MRS.    P.    P.    BLISS. 

Paul  P.  Bliss,  the  composer  and  singer,  whose  hymns  and 
tunes  have  become  so  widely  popular  and  useful,  was  a 
native  of  northern  Pennsylvania.  He  was  of  humble  ex- 
traction, and  in  his  early  life  had  few  advantages  for  educa- 
tion or  culture  ;  but  God  had  given  him  a  noble  nature,  and 
endowed  him  with  at  least  three  great  talents.  He  married 
young  a  lady  of  his  own  social  position,  possessing  great 
strength  of  character  and  deep  religious  principle,  through 
whose  influence  Mr.  Bliss  was  converted,  and  led  to  consecrate 
all  the  energies  of  his  great  soul  to  the  Master's  service.  On 
coming  to  Chicago  he  united  with  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  Rev.  Dr.  Goodwin,  pastor,  where  he  labored  lovingly 
and  faithfully  for  many  years  as  leader  of  the  choir  and 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school;  also  becoming  widely 
known  throughout  the  North-west  by  his  work  in  musical 
conventions.  He  was  an  accomplished  vocalist,  possessing  a 
rich  baritone  voice;  while  as  a  composer  he  will  t>e  long 
remembered  as  author  of  many  of  the  Gospel  Songs  sung  at 
the  Moody  and  Sankey  meetings — such  as  ''  Hold  the  Fort;" 
"That  will  be  Heaven  for  Me;"  "  Where  Are  the  Nine?" 
"  Whosoever  Will  ;"  "  What  Shall  the  Harvest  Be  ?  "  "  Halle- 
luiah, 'tis  Done  ;"  "  More  to  Follow  ;"  "  My  Prayer  ;"  "  Almost 
Persuaded  ;V  "  Where  Hast  Thou  Gleaned  To-day  ?"  "  When 
Jesus  Comes;"  "  Let  the  Lower  Lights  be  Burning;"  "  Pull 
for  the  Shore;"  "Only  an  Armor-bearer,"  and  others.  In 
many  cases  both  the  words  and  music  were  of  his  com- 
position. 

Mrs.  Bliss,  who  possessed  much  musical  ability,  also  com- 
posed words  and  music  for  some  of  the  pieces  contained  in 
his  collection,  under  the  rioni  deplume  of  "Paulina." 

The  tie  between  this  husband  and  wife  was  of  the  closest  and 
tenderest  nature.  She  it  was  who  inspired  him  with  confi- 
dence in  his  musical  abilities,  and  aided  and  encouraged  their 
21* 


490      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

development.  "  All  that  I  am  I  owe  to  that  dear  wife,"  was 
his  own  testimony  to  her  loving  helpfulness. 

Soon  after  Major  Whittle  entered  upon  the  revival  work 
Mr.  Bliss  decided  to  give  up  his  business  and  accompany  him. 
Together  they  traveled  through  the  West  and  South  during 
the  years  1S74,  '75,  and  '76,  Major  Whittle  preaching,  and  Mr. 
Bliss  singing,  the  Gospel.  Possessed  of  easy  and  polished 
manners,  a  joyous  and  hopeful  temperament,  with  a  wealth 
of  sympathy  for  need  or  sorrow;  and  a  most  childlike  trust  in 
God,  he  seemed  especially  endowed  for  the  work  he  had  un- 
dertaken. Generous  and  kind  in  the  extreme,  he  devoted  his 
share  of  the  royalty  upon  the  "Gospel  Songs,"  which  had  al- 
together amounted  to  over  $60,000,  to  charity.  He  had  no 
private  fortune,  not  even  owning  the  house  in  which  he  lived; 
but  he  knew  that  God  would  take  care  of  him  and  his. 

During  the  last  three  months  of  his  life,  in  connection  with 
Major  Whittle,  he  held  revival  services  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich., 
and  afterward  at  Peoria,  111.  These  meetings  were  crowned 
with  great  success,  large  numbers  of  people  being  led  to  the 
cross  of  Christ. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  at  the  close  of  the  Moody  and 
Sankey  meetings  in  Chicago  Messrs.  Whittle  and  Bliss  should 
carry  on  the  revival  work.  But  God  had  other  plans  for  "the 
sweet  singer  of  Israel."  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bliss  and  their  two 
little  children,  Paul,  and  George  Goodwin,  went  to  Pennsyl- 
vania to  spend  the  Christmas  holidays.  "  He  was  the  only 
son  of  his  mother,  and  she  was  a  widow."  « 

The  visit  was  brief,  for  Mr.  Bliss  was  to  begin  his  work  in 
Chicago  Sunday,  December  31.  The  cold  was  intense,  and  a 
wild  snow-storm  was  raging ;  so  leaving  their  two  little  ones  at 
the  house  of  a  relative  in  Avon,  N.  Y.,  whom  they  had  also 
visited,  the  devoted  pair  set  out  upon  their  journey,  Mr. 
Bliss  telegraphing  to  Major  Whittle,  "  We're  going  home  to 
morrow." 

But  the  home  which  awaited  them  was  nearer  than  Chicago. 
The  work  of  a  life-time  had  been  done  in  a  few  earnest  years, 
and  the  voice  of  the  Master  said,  "Come  up  higher." 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  491 

On  the  night  of  Friday,  December  29,  all  that  was  mortal 
of  Mr.  Bliss  and  his  faithful  wife  perished  in  the  terrible  rail- 
way accident  at  Ashtabula,  Ohio. 

Their  transition  from  one  world  to  the  other  was  thus  in- 
stantaneous, but  it  deserves  not  to  be  called  unexpected,  since 
toward  those  opening  gates  he  was  already  looking  with  a 
sense  of  approaching  death  and  glory.  He  already  belonged 
in  heaven  ;  his  citizenship  was  there. 

The  Memorial  Services. 

When  the  sad  news  of  his  death  and  that  of  his  familj — for 
the  first  report  was  that  parents  and  children  had  all  perished 
together — reached  Chicago,  the  burden  of  loss  and  sorrow 
seemed  almost  too  heavy  to  bear. 

On  Sunday,  December  31,  a  Memorial  Service  was  held  in 
the  Tabernacle,  the  vast  building  being  draped  with  mourn- 
ing, and  decorated  with  pure  white  crowns  of  flowers,  which 
are  every-where  sacred  to  death.  A  large  congregation  as- 
sembled, while  the  great  choir  sang,  softly  and  lovingly,  several 
of  his  beautiful  hymns  who  had  just  entered  into  the  heaven 
of  which  he  loved  to  sing. 

Presently  Mr.  Moody  entered,  and  all  eyes  Mere  turned  to 
see  how  this  man,  twice  bowed  under  the  weight  of  affliction 
since  the  Chicago  revival  began,  would  bear  himself,  and  all 
ears  were  listening  for  his  first  word  in  his  great  sorrow. 

He  stood  up  in  his  place,  and,  with  manifest  effort  to  keep 
back  the  sobs  and  tears,  repeated  those  words  of  David, 
"Know  ye  not  that  there  is  a  prince  and  a  great  man  fallen 
in  Israel?"  Then,  almost  unable  to  speak  for  weeping,  he 
said,  "  Let  us  lift  up  our  hearts  to  God  in  silent  prayer." 

A  long  period  of  silence  followed,  broken  at  length  by  sounds 
of  overpowering  emotion,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  voice  ol 
Dr.  Chamberlain  was  heard  giving  thanks  to  God  for  the  hope 
of  eternal  life  on  behalf  of  those  who  had  been  borne  on 
angels'  wings  from  the  place  of  terror  and  death  up  to  the 
bosom  of  God. 

Mr.  Moody  then  arose  and  said  :  "  Vov  the  past  three  months 


4Q2      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

I  have  seemed  to  stand  between  the  living  and  the  dead;  and 
now  I  am  to  stand  in  the  place  of  the  dead.  Mr.  Whittle  and 
Mr.  Bliss  were  announced  to  hold  the  four  o'clock  meeting 
in  the  Tabernacle  to-day,  and  now  Mr.  Farwell,  and  Mr. 
Jacobs,  and  Mr.  Whittle,  with  other  friends,  have  gone  to  see 
if  they  can  find  his  remains  to  take  them  away  for  burial. 
I  have  been  looking  over  his  hymns  to  see  if  I  could  find 
one  appropriate  to  this  occasion,  but  I  find  that  they  are  all, 
like  himself,  full  of  hope  and  cheer.  In  all  the  years  I  have 
known  and  worked  with  him  I  have  never  once  seen  him  cast 
down.  But  here  is  a  hymn  of  his  that  I  thought  we  might  sing. 
Once,  after  the  wreck  of  that  steamer  at  Cleveland,  I  was 
speaking  of  the  circumstance  that  the  lower  lights  were  out, 
and  the  next  time  we  met  he  sang  this  hymn  for  me.  It  is  the 
sixty-fifth  in  our  collection  :  let  us  sing  it  now.  It  begins, 
'Brightly  beams  our  Father's  mercy;'  but  still  more  brightly 
beam  the  'lights  along  the  shore'  to  which  he  has  passed. 
It  was  in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  storm  he  passed  away,  but  the 
lights  which  he  kindled  are  burning  all  along  the  shore.  He 
has  died  young — only  about  thirty-eight  years  old — but  his 
hymns  are  sung  round  the  world.  Only  a  little  while  ago  we 
received  a  copy  of  these  hymns  translated  into  the  Chinese 
language." 

After  the  singing  the  Rev.  Dr.  Goodwin,  of  whose  Church 
Mr. Bliss  had  for  many  years  been  a  loved  and  honored  mem- 
ber, came  forward  and  said  : — 

"Ever  since  these  sad  tidings  came  I  have  been  trying  to 
say,  '  Not  my  will,  but  Thine  be  done.'  I  don't  know  of  any 
death  that  has  come  so  near  to  me.  For  years  I  have  been 
almost  as  a  part  of  that  household  ;  one  of  the  little  ones  bore 
my  name;  we  have  worked  and  prayed  together,  and  I  have 
known  very  much  of  his  heart  in  connection  with  the  great 
mission  of  -his  life,  and  shared  in  his  ever-increasing  delight 
that  God  was  using  him  and  his  music  so  wonderfully.  It 
was  hours  after  the  awful  news  came  before  I  could  see  any 
light;  but  at  last  I  seemed  to  see  a  vision  of  a  great  praise 
service  in  heaven,  with  Brother  Bliss  leading  it — he  was  to 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  493 

nave  led  a  praise  meeting  at  our  Sunday-school  this  afternoon 
— and  then  I  found  light  in  this  darkness.  Out  of  the  fifty 
Sunday-school  scholars  who  are  now  waiting  to  be  received 
into  the  fellowship  of  our  Church,  there  is  hardly  one  but 
can  bear  witness  to  his  helpfulness  in  leading  them  to  Christ. 

"Out  of  this  affliction  has  come  to  them  an  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory,  and  so  I  begin  to  feel,  as  well  as  say, 
All  is  well,  all  is  well  ;  'Precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is 
the  death  of  his  saints,'  and  'The  day  of  his  death  is  better 
than  the  day  of  his  birth.' 

"  This  man's  work  has  reached  all  round  the  world.  The 
other  day  I  received  a  letter  from  a  missionary  in  South 
Africa.  He  said  he  was  going  out  some  time  ago  to  establish 
a  new  mission,  and  when  he  fbok  refuge  in  a  Zulu  hut  the 
first  sound  he  heard  was  the  song,  '  Hold  the  Fort,'  sung  in 
the  Zulu  language.  Here  is  that  thirteenth  hymn  which  he 
sung  for  us  the  other  night.  He  began  by  saying,  '  Brethren, 
I  don't  know  as  I  shall  ever  sing  here  again,  [and  he  never 
did,]  but  I  want  to  sing  this  as  the  language  of  my  heart.'  " 

"Let  us  sing  that  hymn,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  which  was  done 
as  follows  : — 

"  I  know  not  the  hour  when  my  Lord  will  come 
To  take  me  away  to  his  own  dear  home  ; 
Hut  I  know  that  his  presence  will  lighten  the  gloom, 
Ami  that  will  be  glory  tor  me. 
CHORUS. —  And  that  will  he  glory  for  me, 
(  ),  that  will  be  glory  for  me  ; 
But  I  know  that  his  presence  will  lighten  the  gloom, 
And  that  will  be  glory  for  me. 

"  I  know  not  the  song  that  the  angels  sing, 
I  know  not  the  sound  of  the  harps'  glad  ring  ; 
But  I  know  there'll  be  mention  of  Jesus  our  King, 
Ami  that  will  be  musie  for  me. 
CHORUS. — And  that  will  be  music  for  me,  etc. 

"  I  know  not  the  form  of  my  mansion  fair. 
I  know  not  the  name  that  I  then  shall  bear  ; 
But  I  know  that  my  Saviour  will  welcome  me  there, 
And  that  will  be  heaven  for  me. 
CHORUS. — And  that  will  be  heaven  for  me,  etc. 


494      Moody  :  his  Words — Work—  Workers. 

Mi.  Moody  immediately  arranged  for  a  subscription  for 
a  monument  to  commemorate  the  life  which  had  been  so 
helpful,  and  as  soon  as  the  safety  of  the  orphan  children 
was  assured,  a  subscription  for  their  benefit  was  also  cir- 
culated. 

Every  heart  was  open,  and  soon  the  sum  of  ten  thousand 
dollars  was  raised,  five  thousand  dollars  of  it  being  the  gift 
of  Mr.  R.-  C.  Morgan,  of  London,  publisher  of  the  English 
edition  of  "  Gospel  Songs." 

A  work  so  wholly  for  Christ  as  that  of  Mr.  Bliss  could  not 
end  at  his  death.  The  hymns  he  wrote  will  yet  inspire  thou- 
sands of  souls  with  love  for  the  Saviour,  and  comfort  heavy- 
laden  hearts  with  the  cheer  which  filled  his  own.  "  He  being 
dead,  yet  speaketh,"  both  in  life  and  song. 

The  following  hymn,  the  last  one  ever  penned  by  P.  P. 
Bliss,  was  found  in  his  trunk,  which  had  been  forwarded  to 
Chicago  by  another  train  than  the  one  on  which  he  perished, 
and  was  not  quite  completed  nor  revised  at  the  time  of  his 
death.     How  near  it  comes  to  being  a  prophecy! 

I  know  not  what  awaits  me, 

God  kindly  vails  mine  eyes, 
And  o'er  each  step  on  my  onward  way 

He  makes  new  scenes  arise  ; 
And  every  joy  he  sends  me  comes 

A  sweet  and  glad  surprise. 

Chorus. — Where  he  may  lead  I'll  follow, 
My  trust  in  him  repose, 
And  every  hour  in  perfect  peace 
I'll  sing,  "  lie  knows,  he  knows." 


One  step  I  sec  before  me, 

'Tis  all  I  need  to  see, 
The  light  of  heaven  more  brightly  shines 

When  earth's  illusions  flee  ; 
And  sweetly  through  the  silence  comes 

His  loving  "  Follow  me." 
Chorus — Where  he  may  lead  I'll  follow,  etc. 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  495 

O  blissful  lack  of  wisdom  ! 

'Tis  blessed  not  to  know  ! 
He  holds  me  with  his  own  right  hand. 

And  will  not  let  me  go. 
And  lulls  my  troubled  soul  to  rest 

In  Him  who  loves  me  so. 
CHORUS — Where  he  may  lead  I'll  follow,  etc. 

So  on  I  go,  not  knowing  : 

I  would  not  if  I  might  : 
I'd  rather  walk  in  the  dark  with  God, 

Than  go  alone  in  the  light  ; 
I'd  rather  walk  by  faith  in  him 

Than  go  alone  by  sight. 
Chorus — Where  he  may  lead  I'll  follow,  etc. 


D.   W.  WHITTLE. 

Next  to  Mr.  Moody,  as  a  preaching  evangelist,  stands  Major 
Whittle,  a  man  of  plain  speech  and  solid  piety,  whose  words 
have  been  already  owned  of  God  to  the  awakening  of  thou- 
sands of  souls. 

Major  Whittle  is  a  native  of  Vermont,  is  about  forty  years 
of  age,  and  has  been  a  resident  of  Chicago  since  1857,  where 
he  was  converted,  and  united  with  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  under  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  W.  W.  Patton,  D.D. 

Mr.  Whittle  was  employed  in  the  office  of  Fargo  &  Co.'s 
Express  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  when  he  enlisted 
a  company  in  Chicago  and  joined  the  army  as  a  captain  of 
infantry. 

During  his  army  life  he  maintained  his  Christian  profes- 
sion, and  for  a  long  time  kept  up  a  company  prayer- 
meeting. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  returned  with  the  brevet  rank 
of  major,  and  soon  after  was  offered  a  situation  as  business 
manager  of  the  Elgin  Watch  Company,  with  a  salary  of  five 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  which  he  accepted. 

His  work  as  superintendent  of  the  West  Side  Tabernacle 
Sunday-School,  a  mission  opened  by  the  First  Congregational 


496      Moody:  his  Words— Wcrk— Workers. 

Church,  was  greatly  blessed,  and  for  some  time  before  his 
entrance  upon  the  work  of  an  ^evangelist  his  services  were  in 
considerable  demand  as  a  Bible  reader  and  helper  in  revivals 
of  religion. 

At  length,  feeling  called  of  God  to  a  wider  field  of  Chris- 
tian labor,  he  resigned  his  position,  with  its  ample  salary,  and 
gave  himself  wholly  up  to  Christ,  trusting  in  him  for  direc- 
tion and  support. 

His  line  of  work  during  the  past  three  years  has  embraced 
'the  cities  of  Baraboo,  Wis.;  Lexington,  Ky.  ;  Kalamazoo, 
Mich. ;  Peoria,  111.  ;  and  others  ;  at  all  of  which,  except  the 
first,  he  was  accompanied  by  his  friend  Mr.  Bliss,  and  at  all 
of  which  their  preaching  and  singing  was  accompanied  with 
the  mighty  power  of  God's  Spirit. 

When  Mr.  Moody  was  suddenly  called  away,  during  the 
first  week  of  the  Chicago  revival,  Major  Whittle  was  desig- 
nated to  take  his  place.  His  success  in  that  great  and  trying 
emergency  will  appear  from  the  following  notice  of  him,  taken 
from  the  "  Chicago  Tribune  :  "— 

Major  Whittle  is  not  quite  so  loving  as  Mr.  Moody,  but  none  the  less 
terrible  to  cold-hearted,  worldly-minded  professors  of  religion.  He 
seems  to  have  heard  the  same  command  that  was  given  to  the  old 
prophet  Isaiah  :  "Cry  aloud,  spare  not,  lift  up  thy  voice  like  a  trum- 
pet, and  show  my  people  their  transgressions,  and  the  house  of  Jacob 
their  sins."  And  what  is  remarkably  the  house  of  Jacob,  instead  of 
being  angry  with  the  modern  prophet,  weep  over  their  transgressions, 
and  ask  for  prayers  that  they  may  be  saved  from  their  sins. 

It  was  a  memorable  day  when  the  most  eminent  and  successful 
ministers  of  Chicago  began  to  feel  so  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  their 
own  shortcomings  that  they  arose  in  the  presence  of  the  great  con- 
gregations and  desired  Mr.  Moody  and  the  people  to  pray  for  them. 
Yesterday  the  request  came  also  from  the  laity,  who  responded  in 
large  numbers  to  the  most  searching  invitation  which  has  thus  far 
been  given,  and  arose  to  confess,  some  of  them  in  tears,  that  they 
felt  convicted  of  certain  neglected  duties  to  their  neighbors,  and  to 
pledge  themselves,  by  the  help  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  to  go  and  make 
confessions  and  restitution.  When  a  hundred  or  more  persons  pub- 
licly respond  to  such  a  call  as  that   there   must   be  something  more 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  497 

than  the  ordinary  every-day  religious  life  among  the  members  of  the 
Churches. 

Major  Whittle  has  a  clear,  ringing  voice,  and,  like  all  the  evangelists 
of  the  school  to  which  he  belongs,  he  knows  how  to  handle  a  Bible. 
It  is  a  singular  fact  that  with  all  our  theological  seminaries  and 
learned  treatises  on  homiletics,  it  should  fall  to  the  lot  of  laymen  to 
teach  the  ministers  of  this  generation  how  to  "  preach  the  word." 
The  traditional  sermon,  with  its  introduction,  critical  examination, 
heads,  sub-heads,  illustrations,  inferences,  conclusions,  exhortations, 
applications,  "finalies,"  "lastlies,"  "and  suffer  a  few  words  more," 
has  become  a  theory  of  the  past. 

It  has  remained  for  Harry  Moorehouse,  I).  L.  Moody,  Major  Whit- 
tle, and  other  lay  evangelists,  to  open  the  biblical  era  of  preaching 
in  America,  and  to  set  all  our  ministers  expounding  the  word  of  God 
from  the  inside  thereof;  trying  to  find  out  what  was  in  the.  heart  of 
Christ,  and  of  his  prophet  or  apostles  when  they  spoke  and  wrote  it, 
and  to  bring  forth  that  power  and  infuse  it  into  the  hearts  of  their 
hearers. 

There  was  a  whole  system  of  theology  in  Major  Whittle's  discourse 
yesterday  afternoon,  and  he  quoted  Scripture  enough  to  have  served 
an  old-fashioned  theologian  for  half  his  natural  life. 

As  a  specimen  of  his  plainness  and  pungency  take  this  ex- 
tract from  his  sermon  on  the  "  Responsibilities  of  Christians 
for  each  other's  sins  :" — 

In  Leviticus,  sixth  chapter  and  verses  i  to  5,  are  these  words  : — 
•'  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  If  a  soul  sin,  and  com- 
mit a  trespass  against  the  Lord,  and  lie  unto  his  neighbor  in  that 
which  was  delivered  him  to  keep,  or  in  fellowship,  [margin,  in  deal- 
ing, j  or  in  a  thing  taken  away  by  violence,  or  hath  deceived  his  neigh- 
bor ;  or  have  found  that  which  was  lost,  ami  lieth  concerning  it,  and 
sweareth  falsely  ; ...  he  shall  restore  that  which  he  took  violently  away, 
or  the  thing  which  he  hath  deceitfully  gotten,  or  that  which  was  deliv- 
ered him  to  keep,  or  the  lost  thing  which  he  found,  ...  he  shall  even 
restore  it  in  the  principal,  and  shall  add  the  fifth  part  more  thereto, 
.  .  .  and  he  shall  bring  his  trespass  offering  unto  the  Lord,  .  .  . 
and  the  priest  shall  make  an  atonement  for  him  before  the  Lord  :  and 
it  shall  be  forgiven  him."  Also  Leviticus  xix.  17-18:  "Thou  shalt 
not  hate  thy  brother  in  thine  heart  :  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  rebuke 
thy  neighbor,  and  not  suffer  sin  upon  him.      Thou  shalt  not   avenge, 


498       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

nor  bear  any  grudge  against  the  children  of  thy  people,  hut  thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

My  friends,  it  is*  our  purpose  to  come  together  to-morrow  to  fast 
and  pray  before  the  Lord,  to  confess  our  sins  to  him  and  pray  for  the 
outpouring  of  his  Spirit  upon  us  ;  but  there  are  some  things  in  the 
way  of  preparation  which  should  go  before  our  attempt  to  worship 
God  in  this  solemn  manner.  Sin  against  our  neighbor  is  also  sin 
against  God.     What  we  do  against  our  neighbor  God  takes  it  up. 

If  we  are  going  to  appear  before  the  Lord  we  must  first  be  honest, 
and  meet  this  duty  of  confession  and  restitution.  It  is  in  vain  for  any 
one  to  come  to  God  with  prayers  and  sacrifices  while  he  is  trampling 
on  the  rights  of  one  of  God's  little  ones.  A  man  might  as  well 
abuse  my  children  on  his  way  to  my  house,  and  then  come  and  talk 
pleasantly  to  me  in  the  parlor  while  my  children  were  crying  in  the 
kitchen  over  the  wrongs  he  had  done  them. 

The  first  thing  for  us  to  do,  if  we  wish  to  draw  nigh  to  God,  is  to 
restore  what  we  have  wrongfully  taken  from  our  neighbors.  If  you 
have  lied  in  your  business,  or  deceived  any  one,  or  overreached  any- 
one, or  borne  a  grudge  against  any  one,  it  is  of  no  use  to  pray  for 
the  blessing  of  God  till  you  have  made  full  restitution. 

There  was  a  Church  member  sent  to  jail  the  other  day  for  cheating 
and  lying  about  some  business  matter,  and  she  made  this  excuse  : 
"  Every  body  lies  in  business."  Now,  that  isn't  true,  but  the  stand- 
ard of  business  honesty,  even  among  professing  Christians,  is  far  too 
low.  It  makes  no  difference  if  the  world  is  given  to  lying.  God 
tells  his  children  not  to  lie. 

Go  and  confess  to  your  neighbor  if  you  have  wronged  him  in  his 
business  or  in  his  reputation.  Some  of  you  have  not  set  a  Christian 
example  before  your  husbands,  or  wjves,  or  children.  Go  and  con- 
fess it.  There  is  many  a  wife  who  is  going  down  to  an  early  grave 
because  her  professedly  Christian  husband  is  disobeying  the  law  ot 
God  in  his  family  relations  :  there  are  sons  and  daughters  who  are 
drifting  away  from  God  and  the  Church  because  they  fail  to  see  a 
Christian  life  and  spirit  in  their  professedly  Christian  parents. 

There  are  "things  delivered  unto  you  to  keep  "  in  the  family,  in  the 
Church,  in  the  community  ;  and  every  Christian  who  has  trespassed 
against  his  neighbor,  or  his  brother  or  sister  in  the  Church,  or  the 
members  of  his  own  household,  either  by  fraud,  or  lying,  or  dis- 
honesty, or  pride,  or  anger,  has  the  duty  plainly  set  before  him  of 
going  to  the  one  against  whom  he  has  sinned  and  confessing  the 
wrong  and  making  full  restitution.     Then,  after  that,  not  before,  let 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  4^9 

him  come  to  God  with  faith  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Lamb,  whose 
blood  was  shed  on  Calvary  for  a  sin  offering,  and  in  the  promise  that 
the  sin  shall  be  forgiven. 

In  Ephesians  V,  II,  we  are  told  to  "  have  no  fellowship  with  the  un- 
fruitful works  of  darkness,  but  rather  reprove  them."  In  i  Thessa- 
lonians  v,  14.  are  these  words  :  "  Now  we  exhort  you.  brethren,  warn 
them  that  are  unruly,  comfort  the  feeble-minded,  support  the  weak, 
be  patient  toward  all  men."  Also  Galatians  vi,  1  :  "Brethren,  if  a 
man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual,  restore  such  a 
one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness ;  considering  thyself,  lest  thou  also  be 
tempted." 

All  true  Christians  are  branches  of  the  same  vine.  It  is  my  duty 
to  be  willing  to  be  clipped  and  pruned  if  thereby  not  myself,  but 
some  other  branch,  becomes  more  healthful  and  fruitful.  We  are 
living  stones  in  the  same  temple,  and  we  ought  to  rejoice,  not  in  our 
own  individual  strength  and  beauty,  but  in  the  strength  and  beauty 
of  the  whole  edifice.  Now  I  suppose  that  not  more  than  one  in  ten 
of  the  members  of  the  Churches  in  this  city  have  been  with  us  in 
these  meetings  for  prayer  and  self-examination.  And  it  is  your  duty 
who  have  been  here,  and  have  been  blessed  by  coming,  to  go  to  your 
brethren  and  invite  them  to  the  house  and  work  of  the  Lord.  God 
has  blessed  us  so  much  with  a  spirit  of  meekness  and  gentleness  that 
we  can  invite  them  much  more  effectively  than  if  we  had  gone  to 
them  with  that  spirit  of  fault-finding  which  used  to  be  so  prevalent 
among  us.  God  will  not  bless  a  Church  whose  members  neglect  one 
another. 

i  once  read  something  of  three  little  children  who  were  out  in  a 
boat  together,  when  it  capsized,  and  the  two  smallest  of  them  were 
drowned.  The  oldest  one  had  tried  his  best  to  save  them,  and  was 
himself  taken  out  of  the  water  almost  dead.  When  he  came  to  him- 
self and  remembered  the  terrible  scene  through  which  he  had  passed, 
he  broke  out  into  sobs  and  cries  as  if  his  heart  would  break,  saying, 
"How  can  I  goto  my  mother !  When  she  sees  me  she  will  say, 
•  Why  didn't  you  save  Johnny  ?  Why  didn't  you  save  Mary  ?'  '  My 
friends,  we  cm  sympathize  with  that  boy  ;  but  suppose  he  had  made 
no  effort  to  save  his  brother  and  sister,  and  had  come  to  his  mother, 
saying,  *'  It  is  true  Johnny  and  Mary  are  drowned  ;  but  then  I  thought 
you  would  be  so  glad  that  I  was  saved  :"  what  would  you  think  ot 
him  ?  Would  not  that  mother  be  in  doubt  which  to  mourn  over  the 
most,  the  death  of  the  two  who  were  drowned,  or  the  selfishness  ot 
the  one  who  was  saved  ? 


500      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Moody's  labors  in  Chicago  Major 
Whittle,  assisted  by  Mr.  George  C.  Stebbins,  commenced  a 
series  of  revival  meetings  at  Plymouth  Congregational  Church, 
and  using  the  great  Tabernacle  on  Sundays,  which  has  thus 
far  continued  to  be  well  filled.  In  all  respects  Major  Whit- 
tle has  proved  himself  a  worthy  comrade  and  co-worker  of 
the  great  evangelist,  who,  years  ago,  saw  the  power  and  grace 
that  was  in  him,  and  predicted  for  him,  and  urged  upon  him, 
the  work  of  a  lay  evangelist. 


CHARLES    M.    MORTON. 

Among  the  men  brought  out  and  trained  by  Mr.  Moody  is 
Charles  M.  Morton,  the  State  Secretary  for  Illinois  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  His  was  a  very  un- 
promising case,  as  will  appear  from  this  account  he  once 
gave  of  himself.  He  says:  "1  grew  up  without  a  knowledge 
of  the  Saviour,  and  scarcely  knew  or  believed  that  there  was 
a  God.  When  the  war  broke  out  we  shouldered  our  rifles 
and  went  to  the  front.  Our  lives  then  were  wicked.  I  was 
3  ringleader  in  drinking  and  in  gambling,  and  it  used  to  be 
my  boast  that  I  could  blaspheme  the  name  of  God  in  more 
ways  than  any  other  man  about." 

Having  lost  his  right  arm,  he  left  the  army  and  went  to 
Chicago,  where  he  continued  his  life  of  sin  until  his  money 
was  all  gone,  and  then  applied  to  the  Employment  Bureau  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  for  work.  Mr.  Gibbs, 
who  was  then  in  charge,  (to  whom  a  soldier  with  an  empty 
sleeve  was  always  an  object  of  tender  interest,)  spoke  to  him 
about  Christ;  and,  having  no  chance  of  employment  for  a 
man  with  only  one  arm,  he  gave  him  a  place  as  man-of-all- 
work  about  the  Association  rooms,  which  were  then  in  the 
Methodist  Church  Block. 

Mr.  Rockwell,  superintendent  of  the  mission  work,  who 
had  himself  been  brought  into  the  association  by  Mr.  Moody, 
gave  him  lodgings  in  his  own  room  in  the  same  building. 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  501 

Mr.  R.  gives  the  following  account  of  his  conversion  : — 
"  When  Morton  came  to  be  my  room-mate,  he  brought, 
along  with  his  other  small  properties,  a  pouch  of  tobacco  and 
a  pipe,  and  when  I  came  home  that  evening  I  found  him  sit- 
ting with  his  chair  tipped  back,  his  heels  on  the  window-sill, 
his  hat  stuck  on  the  back  of  his  head,  smoking  till  all  was 
blue.  Taking  up  the  Bible,  I  mentioned  that  I  was  in  the 
habit  of  reading  a  chapter  and  offering  prayer  before  I  went 
to  bed,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  any  objections. 

"  '  Objections  !  no  ;  none  at  all.  You  can  pray  as  much  as 
you  like  without  disturbing  me.'  And,  as  far  as  I  know,  he 
did  not  stir  from  his  place,  or  even  stop  his  smoking,  while 
the  reading  and  praying  were  going  on.  The  next  night  he 
was  in  his  old  attitude,  lost  in  smoke  as  usual ;  though,  from 
the  account  he  gave  of  himself  afterward,  I  learned  that  this 
time  he  did  take  off  his  hat  during  the  prayer,  but  must  have 
put  it  on  again  very  quickly,  for  I  did  not  see  the  action. 

"Feeling  a  deep  interest  in  his  case  I  presented  him  at  the 
noon  meeting  for  prayers,  and  this  I  continued  to  do  twenty- 
one  days  in  succession.  During  this  time  he  spoke  with  great 
freedom  of  his  doubts  concerning  religion,  saying  it  was  only 
fit  for'  foolish  people,  and  declaring  that  Burns  had  written 
better  things  than  any  contained  in  the  Bible.  But,  as  I 
afterward  learned,  though  he  still  concealed  it  all  from  me, 
he  gradually  became  more  attentive  at  prayers.  On  the  third 
evening  he  stopped  smoking;  on  the  fourth  he  took  down 
his  feet  from  the  window-sill ;  on  the  fifth  he  got  down  on 
one  knee;  on  the  sixth  on  both  knees;  but  every  time  he 
was  up  and  in  his  old  place  before  I  reached  the  '  Amen,'  so 
I  did  not  see  how  fast  he  was  coming  on. 

"  ( In  the  evening  of  the  twenty-first  day  we  had  a  little 
prayer-meeting  down  in  a  Baptist  church  in  DeKoven-strcet, 
and  there  we  prayed  for  Morton  till  the  heavens  seemed  to 
bend.  It  was  late  when  I  reached  home,  and  I  found  him  in 
bed  ;  so  I  sat  down  beside  him,  and  said  to  him  : — 
"'  Charley,  we  have  been  praying  for  you  to-night.' 
'"Have    you5      I    thank    you.    Frank,'   said   he.    hi--   voice 


502      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

choking  with  emotion  ;  and  then  he  turned  away  and  buried 
his  face  in  the  pillow.  About  midnight  he  arose,  and  went 
into  the  prayer-room  adjoining,  where,  after  an  hour  of  mighty 
wrestling  with  God,  he  felt  his  sins  forgiven  ;  and,  when  he 
came  back,  his  infidelity  had  vanished,  and  he  was  a  saved 
and  happy  man." 

A  little  while  before  his  acquaintance  with  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  he  and  a  comrade,  named 
Stewart,  had  been  on  a  drinking  bout  together,  trying  who 
could  drink  the  most  liquor  before  being  overcome  by  it. 
While  Morton  was  seeking  and  finding  the  Saviour  at  the 
Association  rooms,  Stewart  was  doing  the  same  thing  at  the 
church,  and  the  very  next  time  they  met  after  their  great 
debauch  together,  each  was  surprised  and  overjoyed  to  find 
the  other  happy  in  the  love  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Moody,  after  his  usual  fashion,  called  out  the  young 
convert,  and  almost  compelled  him  to  take  part  in  the  As- 
sociation prayer-meetings.  The  first  time  he  was  called 
on  he  was  unable  to  utter  a  word,  though  he  made  a  desper- 
ate effort  to  open  his  mouth.  The  next  time  he  was  able  to 
talk  with  the  Lord  in  a  sentence  or  two.  At  length  the  real 
power  and  genius  of  the  man  began  to  appear;  and  Mr. 
Moody,  who  was  quick  to  notice  such  marks  of  promise,  took 
him  over  to  his  Illinois-street  Church  and  made  him  a  kind 
of  assistant  pastor.  His  duty  was  to  visit  from  house  to 
house,  hold  cottage  prayer-meetings  and  street  meetings,  and 
to  preach  in  the  Illinois- street  Church  on  Sunday  evenings, 
while  Mr.  Moody  was  holding  service  at  Farwell  Hall. 

These  two  men  used  to  attend  a  good  many  conventions 
together;  and  Morton  became,  like  his  leader,  a  very  effective 
platform  speaker,  drawing  largely  from  his  own  strange  ex- 
perience, and  exhorting  with  great  earnestness  and  power. 
It  was  while  attending  the  National  Sunday-school  Conven- 
tion, at  Newark,  New  Jersey,  in  April,  1869,  that  he  attracted 
the  attention  of  some  of  the  Brooklyn  brethren,  who  were  on 
the  lookout  for  a  man  to  take  charge  of  the  Plymouth  Bethel. 
They  invited  him  to  Brooklyn,  tested  his  qualitv,  and  installed 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  503 

him  in  the  place,  where  lie  came  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  successful  missionaries  in  America. 

Judge  Culver,  of  Pontiac,  who  was  his  fellow-laborer  in  the 
Sunday-school  canvass  of  this  State  made  several  years  ago, 
speaks  of  his  zeal  and  faithfulness  in  the  highest  terms.  "  I 
have  seen  him,"  he  says,  "  kneeling  beside  the  highway  or 
the  railroad  track,  or  in  any  sort  of  place  where'  he  could 
persuade  a  sinner  to  join  him  in  prayer." 

At  the  last  Annual  State  Convention  Mr.  Morton  was 
elected  State  Secretary  for  Illinois  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  in  which  work  he  has  thus  far  met  with 
great  success.  Mr.  Morton  is  in  no  sense  under  Mr.  Moody's 
direction;  but  as  one  of  the  men  called  out  and  trained  by 
the  great  evangelist,  to  whom  he  is  a  brother  in  love  and 
counsel,  this  record  of  Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers  would  be 
incomplete  without  him. 


MISS    EMELINE    DRYER. 

A  short  time  before  Mr.  Moody  left  Chicago  for  his  third 
journey  to  Europe  he  began  the  development  of  a  plan  in 
which  those  men  and  women  entering  upon  mission  or  evan- 
gelistic work  might  receive  systematic  training  in  the  Bible. 

Mr.  Moody's  Theological  Seminary,  if  in  its  small  begin- 
nings it  will  bear  so  large  a  name,  proposed  to  dispense  with 
homiletics,  dialectics,  and  other  traditional  forms  of  theo- 
logic  lore,  and  to  replace  them  by  the  eternal  word  of  God. 
He  judged  that  whatever  is  taught  in  the  Bible  can  be  more 
effectually  studied  there  than  in  any  other  book;  and  that 
whatever  is  not  taught  in  the  Bible  is  not  worth  the  learning 
at  all  by  those  whose  only  work  was  to  spread  the  Gospel 
of  Christ. 

This  new  and  important  branch  of  the  work  Mr.  Moody 
was  able  to  confide  to  faithful  and  efficient  hands. 

Miss  Emeline  Dryer,  a  lady  of  extensive  culture  and 
thorough  refinement,  actuated  by  a  purpose  to  devote  herself 
wholly  to  religious  work,  had  been  led  to  relinquish  a  position 


504      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

of  high  honor  and  great  usefulness,  which  she  had  long  held  as 
preceptress  of  the  State  Normal  University,  Illinois,  and  was 
at  this  time  engaged  in  charitable  and  philanthropic  work  in 
Chicago.  Her  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  her  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  Christ,  together  with  her  marked  ability  as  a 
leader  and  instructor,  attracted  Mr.  Moody's  notice,  and  he 
at  once  secured  her  services  for  this  important  trust.  So 
heartily  did  Miss  Dryer  enter  into  the  work,  and  so  efficient 
have  her  labors  been  found,  that  a  steady  increase  of  num- 
bers and  power  has  characterized  this  branch  of  effort  from 
its  foundation.  The  plan  has  been  to  call  together  all  those 
Christian  persons  who  are  willing  to  give  their  time  to  relig- 
ious work,  and  drill  them  daily  in  the  histories,  biographies, 
teachings,  exhortations,  warnings,  commands,  prophecies  and 
promises  of  the  Bible,  in  the  assurance  that  from  this  heav- 
enly armory  may  be  drawn  all  weapons  and  defenses  needful 
in  the  warfare  against  the  enemy  of  souls ;  while,  at  the  same 
time,  the  strength  thus  obtained  is  used  in  Christian  effort 
among  neglected  sinners. 

During  the  past  year  Miss  Dryer  and  her  Bible  readers 
have  held  673  cottage  prayer-meetings,  78  mothers'  meetings, 
165  school  prayer-meetings;  have  directed  502  sessions  of 
sewing-schools,  made  2,820  calls  for  Bible  reading,  479  visits 
to  the  sick,  and  distributed  10,628  tracts  and  religious  papers  ; 
this  in  addition  to  their  own  regular  hours  for  daily  Bible 
study.  Miss  Dryer  devotes  her  entire  time  and  effort  to 
these  varied  labors,  receiving  no  salary,  but  trusting  in  the 
Lord  alone  for  support  and  direction.  She  has  also  aided 
most  efficiently  in  revival  work,  by  holding  meetings  and 
giving  Bible  readings  in  the  various  churches  of  the  city. 
She  was  with  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  during  a  part  of 
the  New  York  revival,  and  rendered  valuable  service  in  the 
inquiry  room,  and  in  other  branches  of  Christian  work. 

This  devoted  Christian  woman  was  born  in  Massachusetts, 
but  removed  early  to  New  York  State  ;  graduated  with  the 
highest  honors  from  Le  Roy  Female  Seminary,  and  was  the 
first   preceptress  of  the   Knoxville    Female   College.     Thor- 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  505 

oughly  educated,  she  also  possesses  a  most  winning  address 
and  gentle  manners,  which  every-where  surround  her  with 
loving  and  appreciative  friends. 


REV.   W.    J.    ERDMAN. 

The  present  pastor  of  Mr.  Moody's  North  Side  Church,  as  it 
is  usually  called,  or  more  properly,  of  the  Chicago  Avenue 
Church,  is  Rev.  W.  J.  Erdman,  a  member  of  the  Chicago 
Presbytery,  though  holding  a  somewhat  peculiar  position  for 
a  member  of  that  ministerial  body. 

He  was  born  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  is  of  Dutch  ex- 
traction, and  was  brought  up  religiously  in  the  doctrines  and 
usages  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  His  father,  though 
a  layman,  was  a  great  Bible  student,  and  two  of  his  sons  now 
in  the  ministry  have  inherited  his  tastes  in  that  direction. 

Mr.  Erdman  received  his  theological  education  at  the 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  where  he  was  a 
classmate  of  Rev.  Drs.  Goodwin  and  Mitchell,  two  leading 
Chicago  clergymen  of  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 
bodies.  He  was  settled  over  the  Presbyterian  Churches  in 
Jamestown,  N.  Y.,  and  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  where  he  was  re- 
garded as  a  man  of  unusual  poetic  genius;  but  at  length  he 
became  convinced  that  the  only  true  course  for  a  preacher 
was  to  "  preach  the  word,"  and  from  that  time  he  devoted 
himself  to  exegetical  study  and  discourse,  in  which  he  has 
become  eminent. 

Major  Whittle,  who  during  a  part  of  Mr.  Moody's  absence 
in  Great  Britain  was  the  chief  leader  in  his  Church,  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Erdman,  and  judging  him  to  be  a 
man  of  rare  qualities  for  the  work  of  the  Bible  school, 
secured  his  services  as  a  Bible  teacher,  in  which  he  was  so 
successful,  and  through  which  he  became  so  much  endeared 
to  that  congregation,  that,  with  Mr.  Moody's  consent,  they 
elected  him  their  pastor;  which  position  he  has  held  for 
about  two  years  with  in<  reasing  usefulness  and  widening  in- 


506      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

fluence,  both  in  his  own  Church  and  in  the  city  and  country 
at  large.  His  Bible  readings  in  other  Churches  have  been 
much  enjoyed.  At  the  date  of  this  writing  he  has  a  Bible 
class  in  the  First  Congregational  Church  on  Sunday  after- 
noons with  an  attendance  of  six  hundred  persons;  while  the 
Bible  school,  whose  daily  sessions  are  held  at  Farwell  Hall, 
under  such  teachings  as  Messrs.  Erdman,  Jacobs,  and  Miss 
Dryer,  with  occasional  assistance  from  leading  city  pastors,  is 
coming  to  be  a  power  for  good,  and  gives  promise  of  becom- 
ing at  no  distant  day  a  Bible  college  after  the  manner  of  Mr. 
Spurgeon's  famous  college  in  London. 


MAJOR  COLE. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Cole  is  another  lay  evangelist,  whose  labors  both 
in  this  country  and  in  Great  Britain  have  been  remarkably 
blessed.  He  was  formerly  a  successful  business  man  in  Chi- 
cago, but  on  account  of  habits  of  dissipation  he  lost  his  prop- 
erty and  was  leading  a  wretched  life,  when  the  Spirit  of  God 
awakened  and  converted  him,  not  only  giving  him  the  assur- 
ance of  the  pardon  of  his  sins  and  the  possession  of  a  new 
heart,  but  saving  him  at  once  from  the  appetite  for  strong 
drink.  He  soon  became  prominent  and  useful  in  connection 
with  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Chicago,  and 
on  Mr.  Moody's  last  departure  for  Europe  he  was  left  in 
charge  of  the  association  meetings. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  felt  moved  to  give  up  his  business 
and  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  al- 
though his  fortunes  were  recovering  from  the  effects  of  his 
dissipation,  he  resolved  to  obey  the  heavenly  call. 

It  was  not  without  sore  trials  of  his  faith  that  he  became 
fully  separated  from  the  world;  but  privations,  loss  of  prop- 
erty, and  even  the  deprivation  of  what  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  call  the  necessaries  of  life,  only  drove  him  to  seek 
a  larger  share  in  the  riches  of  grace.  At  one  time  he  was 
in  actual  sight  of  want  of  food  for  himself  and  family ;  but 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  507 

from  this  approaching  distress  he  was  delivered  by  means 
so  evidently  providential  that  from  that  time  all  doubt  of 
God's  personal  care  for  him  and  his  house  vanished,  and  he 
and  his  wife  and  daughter  thenceforward  gave  themselves 
wholly  up  to  God,  taking  him  for  their  portion,  and  devoting 
themselves  to  such  service  as  he  might  from  time  to  time 
appoint. 

"  And  since  that  day,"  said  he,  "God  has  not  suffered  me 
or  my  family  to  want  any  good  thing.*' 

Early  in  May,  1875,  Mr.  Cole  rejoined  his  old  friend  Mr. 
Moody  in  London,  who  first  assigned  him  to  the  charge  of  the 
Young  Men's  Meeting  in  the  tent  near  the  Bow  Road  Hall, 
at  the  east  end  of  London.  His  next  work  was  a  series  of 
Children's  Meetings,  which  reached  an  attendance  of  nearly 
five  thousand. 

During  the  last  month  in  London  of  the  American  evan- 
gelists, while  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  were  speaking  and 
singing  to  the  great  congregations  at  Camberwell  Hall,  in  the 
south  quarter  of  the  city,  it  was  determined  to  hold  a  series 
of  revival  meetings  in  the  Victoria  Theater,  a  low  class 
playhouse  in  one  of  the  worst  parts  of  London,  and  of  these 
meetings  Mr.  Cole  was  placed  in  charge.  Night  after  night 
the  old  theater  was  filled  with  a  crowd  of  people  who  had 
been  accustomed  to  divide  their  spare  time  and  money  be- 
tween the  gin  palaces  and  the  cheap  performances  of  this 
stage  ;  who,  attracted  at  first  by  the  novelty  of  a  religious 
service  in  a  place  which,  by  common  consent,  was  given  over 
to  the  devil  and  his  friends,  and  held  afterward  by  the  evi- 
dent power  of  God  which  attended  the  simple  and  tender 
preaching  of  his  word. 

This  success  of  Mr.  Cole,  taking  into  account  the  difficul- 
ties under  which  he  labored,  was  not  less  remarkable  than 
that  of  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  themselves;  and,  in  the 
absence  of  those  brethren,  would  have  attracted  great  atten- 
tion. On  being  asked  how  he  prepared  his  sermons,  he  re- 
plied, "  1  pray  to  God  for  them." 

His  preparation   for  the  work  of  an   evangelist  consists  in 


5o8      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

a  good  common-school  education,  thorough  conversion  and 
consecration  to  Christ,  tender  sympathy,  great  familiarity 
with  the  word  of  God,  and  the  evident  presence  and  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  with  his  word  and  work.  His  stay  in  En- 
gland and  Scotland  was  prolonged  for  about  a  year  and  a  half 
after  the  return  of  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey,  and  a  series 
of  revivals  crowned  his  labors,  such  as  were  only  exceeded 
by  those  under  the  great  evangelists  themselves. 

Major  Cole  has  been  admirably  assisted  by  his  wife  and 
daughter,  especially  in  the  Gospel  singing;  the  three  voices 
making  a  very  effective  trio,  and  adding  an  .indescribable 
charm  to  his  simple  preaching  of  the  word. 

In  November  last  he  returned  to  America,  assisted  Mr. 
Moody  in  the  Chicago  revival,  and  is  now  engaged  in  quiet 
personal  labor  for  souls  in  Chicago  and  its  vicinity. 


MISS    FRANCES    E.   WILLARD,    A.M. 

Frances  E.  Willard,  now  so  widely  known  through  her 
public  efforts  in  the  cause  of  Gospel  Temperance,  was  born 
in  the  State  of  New  York;  but  while  still  a  child  her  father 
removed  with  his  family  to  Janesville,  Wisconsin.  As  the 
children  grew  older  the  parents,  desiring  to  give  them  every 
educational  advantage,  again  removed  to  Evanston,  Illinois, 
where  Miss  Willard  graduated  at  an  early  age  from  the  North- 
western Female  Seminary.  Possessing  rare  natural  ability 
and  genius,  to  which  was  early  added  the  grace  of  a  true  and 
unfailing  trust  in  Christ,  she  seemed  specially  endowed  for 
the  calling  of  a  teacher,  which  was  her  chosen  pursuit;  and 
she  had  already  filled  important  trusts  in  Chicago,  Kankakee, 
and  Pittsburgh,  when  she  was  offered  the  position  of  precep- 
tress at  Lima  Seminary,  New  York.  While  there  she  decided 
to  devote  some  time  to  foreign  travel  for  purposes  of  culture 
and  enjoyment,  and  accordingly  joined  the  party  of  the  la- 
mented bishop  Kingsley,  making  a  two  years'  tour  of  Europe 
and  the  Holv  Land. 


Mr.  Moody's  Co -Workers.  509 

Immediately  upon  her  return  she  was  offered  the  position 
of  preceptress  of  the  Ladies'  College  at  Evanston,  a  work  to 
which  she  gave  herself  with  characteristic  heartiness  and  great 
success;  at  the  same  time,  by  her  genius  and  eloquence,  ren- 
dering great  service  to  the  cause  of  missions,  as  represented 
by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  After  some 
years  the  hitherto  separate  College  for  Women  was  added  to 
the  North-western  University,  Miss  Willard  still  retaining  the 
position  of  Dean. 

But  the  desire  to  live  for  Christ,  and  assist  in  carrying  for- 
ward his  work,  which  had  long  been  the  animating  purpose 
of  her  life,  now  led  her  to  decide  upon  devoting  herself  to 
exclusively  religious  efforts.  She  therefore  resigned  her  posi- 
tion at  Evanston,  and  identified  herself  with  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  in  Chicago,  an  organization 
which  originated  in  a  meeting  of  the  ladies  of  that  city, 
called  March  16,  1874,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  to  the 
Mayor  and  Common  Council  a  protest  against  the  sale  of 
liquor  on  the  Sabbath.  This  request  was  refused,  but  the  so- 
ciety thus  formed  continued  its  meetings,  circulating  pledges, 
visiting  saloons,  and  holding  mass-meetings.  In  October  of 
the  same  year  a  decided  impetus  was  given  to  its  workings 
by  the  election  of  Miss  Willard  to  the  office  of  president, 
which  she  still  holds. 

At  once  a  daily  prayer-meeting  was  started  in  lower  Far- 
well  Hall,  which  has  ever  since  been  regularly  and  success- 
fully maintained;  numerous  auxiliary  societies  have  been 
formed  throughout  the  United  State  ;  Miss  Willard,  who  has 
probably  no  superior  among  her  own  sex  as  a  public  speaker, 
made  stirring  appeals  from  platform  and  pulpit;  and  to  her 
zeal  and  ability  may  be  traced  much  of  the  growth  in  power 
and  influence  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

When  Mr.  Moody  came  to  Chicago  in  the  fall  of  1876  he 
met  Miss  Willard  for  the  first  time.  Her  thrilling  addresses, 
tender  and  powerful  prayers,  and  ardent  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  Christ,  made  a  deep  impression  upon  him.  and  he 
at  once  endeavored  to  draw  her  into  the  ranks  of  his  helpers. 


510      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

Sending  for  the  lady,  whom  he  had  never  spoken  with  be- 
fore, he  began  the  conversation  thus: — 

"  Miss  Willard,  will  you  go  to  Boston  with  me,  and  take 
charge  of  the  Women's  Meetings  ?  " 

"I  cannot  tell;  I  need  to  think  and  pray  over  it." 

"Well,  now  is  as  good  a  time  as  any  to  pray;"  and,  ac- 
cordingly, down  on  his  knees  he  went  to  ask  divine  guidance 
for  the  lady  in  her  decision. 

Miss  Willard,  however,  preferred  to  take  a  little  more  time 
to  consider  so  important  a  question ;  but  at  the  end  of  a  few 
days  consented  to  join  the  revivalist  there. 

Her  work  in  Boston  has  been  highly  appreciated  by  many 
of  the  best  Christian  ladies  of  New  England.  Her  Bible  talks 
at  the  Women's  Meeting  in  the  Berkeley-street  Church,  her 
three  hours  of  daily  personal  instruction  of  inquirers,  and  her 
public  addresses  before  various  Christian  temperance  soci' 
eties,  have  placed  her  in  the  front  rank  of  those  women  who 
in  these  days  are  eminent  as  helpers  in  the  work  of  the  Lord. 


GEORGE    C.    STEBBINS. 

This  gentleman,  who  has  recently  joined  Mr.  Moody's  evan- 
gelistic corps  as  a  soloist  and  director  of  music,  is  a  native  of 
Orleans  County,  New  York;  is  about  thirty-one  years  of  age, 
and  has  already  distinguished  himself  as  a  leader  of  devo- 
tional music  in  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Chicago,  and  in  the 
Clarendon-street  Baptist  Church  and  Tremont  Temple,  Bos- 
ton. In  the  summer  of  1876  Mr.  Stebbins  was  invited  by  his 
friend,  Major  Whittle,  to  assist  him  at  some  revival  meetings 
in  Mr.  Moody's  old  home  at  Northfield,  and  while  there  his 
talent  and  power  as  a  gospel  singer  led  to  an  engagement 
with  Mr.  Moody.  His  work  in  organizing  the  great  chorus 
at  the  outset  of  the  Chicago  revival  gave  full  proof  of  his 
spirit  and  capacity.  Since  then  he  has  been  the  comrade  of 
Mr.  Needham,  one  of  the  English  evangelists,  in  revivals  East 
and  West,  where  his  singing  has  been  greatly  enjoyed 


Mr.  Moody's  Co-Workers.  511 


CHARLES    W.    SAWYER. 

Charles  William  Sawyer,  the  Gospel  Temperance  worker, 
whose  meetings  have  attracted  such  attention,  and  been  so 
greatly  blessed  in  connection  with  the  revivals  in  New  York, 
Chicago,  and  Boston,  was  born  in  Gloucester,  Massachusetts, 
in  1835.  His  father  was  a  seafaring  man,  in  the  West  India 
trade,  who  died  when  Charles  was  but  a  lad,  leaving  him  to 
the  care  of  his  mother,  a  godly  woman,  whose  heart  he  nearly 
broke  by  his  early  fall  into  habits  of  drunkenness  and  dissi- 
pation. He  was  for  some  years  a  clerk  in  the  Boston  house 
of  Jordan,  Marsh,  &  Co.,  from  which  he  went  to  the  employ 
of  Claflin  &  Co.,  of  New  York.  During  these  years  he  proved 
his  ability  as  a  salesman  when  not  under  the  power  of  strong 
drink;  but  this  enemy  at  length  became  completely  his  mas- 
ter. Lower  and  lower  he  sank  until  he  even  broke  off  com- 
munication with  his  mother,  who  mourned  over  him  for  years, 
not  knowing  whether  he  was  dead  or  alive.  Her  grief  was 
not  altogether  hopeless,  for  she  was  able  to  cast  her  burden 
on  the  Lord;  meanwhile  giving  herself  to  the  most  active 
efforts  in  the  temperance  cause ;  working  to  save  the  sons  of 
others,  in  the  hope  that  God  would  some  time  send  some  one 
to  save  her  son,  if,  indeed,  he  wpre  still  alive. 

He  says  of  himself,  "I  had  every  thing  behind  me  calcu- 
lated to  make  my  life  a  success,  but  at  sixteen  years  of  age  I 
began  to  like  the  taste  of  blackberry  brandy,  and  the  appetite 
grew  upon  me  year  by  year — you  know  how  it  is,  down,  down, 
down,  all  the  time.  You  have  heard  of  that  man  who  went 
down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  :  he  fell  among  thieves  before 
he  got  to  the  city,  but  I  had  got  right  into  the  midst  of  Jericho. 
I  was  so  completely  lost  that  I  had  no  power  I  could  call 
my  own.  I  drank  myself  out  of  house  and  home,  and  into 
absolute  destitution.  I  had  eyes,  but  I  could  see  nothing-; 
ears,  but  I  could  hear  nothing;   a  heart  that  knew  nothing." 

Through  the  kind  Christian  counsel  of  a  lawyer  in  Pough- 
keepsie,  into  whose  office  he  stumbled  while  up  from  Xnv 
York  on  a  drunken  debauch,  he  was  led  to  seek  Christ  as  the 


512     .Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

only  hope  in  his  desperate  case,  and  by  grace  he  was  saved 
through  faith. 

Of  his  appetite  for  liquor  he  says,  "  I  do  not  know  as  it  is 
dead,  but  God  has  covered  it  up  so  that  I  have  not  seen  any 
thing  of  it  since  he  gave  me  a  new  heart." 

He  was  utterly  destitute,  but  like  a  man  thoroughly  con- 
verted he  began  to  look  about  the  city  for  some  honest  way 
of  living,  and  at  last  was  employed  by  an  old  tanner,  at  four 
dollars  a  week.  His  next  place  was  in  a  brick-yard,  where 
he  made  himself  useful  among  the  men  employed,  preaching 
Christ  to  them,  and  leading  them  to  the  Gospel  Temperance 
meetings,  which  had  been  commenced  in  Poughkeepsie. 

At  length  he  was  able  to  secure  an  engagement  in  New 
York  in  his  old  employment ;  but  the  firm  was  broken  up  by 
the  sudden  death  of  one  of  the  partners,  and  he  was  thrown 
back  into  the  thorny  path  of  privation,  which  was  also  the 
path  of  usefulness,  for  he  continued  to  be  more  and  more 
helpful  as  a  temperance  worker;  and  when  Mr.  Moody  began 
his  meetings  in  New  York  he  found  Mr.  Sawyer  preaching 
Christ  among  the  saloons,  and  also  publishing  a  temperance 
paper  called  "  The  Living  Issue,"  which  at  one  time  reached 
a  circulation  of  fifty  thousand  copies.  He  at  once  engaged 
his  co-operation,  and  the  result  fully  justified  the  action  ;  large 
numbers  of  so-called  hopeless  cases  being  reached  by  the 
Gospel  and  brought  into  the  light  of  the  Lord. 

The  success  of  Mr.  Sawyer's  work  in  Chicago  was  so  great 
that  his  support  was  pledged  by  an  eminent  Christian  mer- 
chant if  he  would  consent  to  remain  permanently  in  that  city  ; 
while  of  the  hundreds  of  "reconstructed  men,"  as  these  re- 
generated drunkards  called  themselves,  a  flourishing  society 
has  been  formed  for  mutual  encouragement,  and  for  carrying 
forward  the  Gospel  Temperance  Revival. 

Mr.  Sawyer  was  well  received  in  Boston,  where  he  has  been 
preaching  Christ  to  the  drunkards  with  good  success;  quietly 
though  efficiently  aided  by  his  wife,  who  has  been  his  good 
angel  ever  since  the  days  when  he  first  turned  from  the  old 
way  into  the  new. 


PART  V. 
THE  GOSPEL- TEMPERANCE  REVIVAL. 


A  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

fHE  work  of  saving  men  from  drunkenness  by  means  of 
the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  is  nothing  new  in  the  Church, 
though  somehow  it  seems  to  have  received  but  little  atten- 
tion. It  is  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  system  of 
revival  work  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Moody,  that  the 
Gospel  is  preached  to  drunkards  and  opium  eaters,  as  a 
means  of  saving  them  from  their  appetites  as  well  as  from 
their  sins. 

The  society  known  as  the  "Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union,"  which  was  organized  in  Chicago  in  March, 
1874,  had  been  holding  temperance  pYayer-meetings  every 
day  in  Farwell  Hall,  at  which  some  remarkable  cases  of 
reformation  and  regeneration  occurred ;  and  when  Moody 
and  Sankey  arrived  to  resume  their  Gospel  work  in  that 
city,  every  thing  was  in  readiness  for  the  Temperance 
Revival  also.  A  band  of  devoted  Christian  women,  with 
Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  at  their  head,  joined  hands  at  once 
with  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey,  and  on  the  third  week  of 
the  Chicago  revival  the  series  of  Friday  noon  temperance 
meetings  was  commenced,  the  record  of  which  has  thrilled 
the  Christian  world. 

In  Philadelphia  and  New  York  the  work  of  reconstructing 
drunkards  was  among  the  wonders — perhaps  we  might  say 
Hie  miracles — of  the    Moody  and   Sankey   revivals.     But    in 


5 14      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

Chicago,  more  than  ever  before,  the  power  of  grace  to  save 
this  class  of  sinners  from  the  physical  as  well  moral  effect  of 
their  transgressions  was  gloriously  manifest. 

Every  body  is  familiar  with  the  old-fashioned  temperance 
meetings  :  Some  great  lecturer  stands  up  and  instructs 
and  amuses  the  people — chiefly  the  latter — giving  statistics  of 
the  cost  of  rum  and  beer,  and  denouncing  the  men  who  make 
and  sell  them  ;  telling  stories  of  drunken'men,  with  imitations 
of  their  drunken  antics,  and  reciting  the  terrible  experiences 
of  drunkards'  wives  and  children  ;  the  whole  followed  by  an 
exhortation  to  sobriety,  and  the  circulation  of  the  temperance 
pledge. 

Besides  this  old-fashioned  process  for  carrying  on  the 
temperance  reform,  there  are  the  various  secret  societies 
with  their  impressive  initiations,  grips,  pass-words,  regalia, 
etc.,  some  of  which  have  national  and  even  international  or- 
ganizations, and  which  occasionally  aspire  to  political  as  well 
as  moral  power.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  these  reformatory  means 
and  measures,  the  business  of  liquor  making  and  liquor  sell- 
ing is  one  of  the  great  "  industries  "  of  the  country.  The 
English  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  was  recently  horrified 
to  find  that  Great  Britain  paid  the  current  expenses  of  its 
government  chiefly  by  the  tax  on  liquors ;  and  it  has  been 
demonstrated  that  no  bill  can  pass  the  British  Parliament 
which  the  beer  and  spirit  interests  of  the  community  oppose. 
The  same  power  has  been  able  to  dictate  terms  to  cities, 
counties,  and  even  States,  in  America,  and  actually  exerts  so 
much  power  in  the  nation*that  great  political  parties  hold  its 
opinions  in  deference. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  the  temperance  movement 
has  been  a  failure  because  it  has  not  stopped  the  making  and 
selling  of  strong  drink,  any  more  than  to  say  that  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  has  been  a  failure  because  it  has  not  put  a 
stop  to  all  sin  and  sorrow.  But  the  facts  would  seem  to  show 
that  every  year  more  liquor  is  made,  and  more  money  is 
made  out  of  it — a  showing  which  is  not  very  hopeful  in  the 
direction  of  a  gradually  approaching  millennium. 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         515 

The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival  is,  in  one  sense,  a  new 
departure  in  the  temperance  movement.  Drunkards  have, 
indeed,  been  converted,  but  the  Church  has  not  looked  for 
their  conversion;  and  when  a  man  has  once  given  himself 
up  to  the  power  of  strong  drink,  it  has  been  assumed  that 
unless  he  could  exercise  an  almost  miraculous  power  of 
will  his  case  was  hopeless,  and  he  was  given  over  to  the 
devil. 

This  Temperance  Gospel,  then,  is,  indeed,  good  news — 
'  Glad  tidings  of  great  joy  "—to  all  those  people  who  arc- 
under  the  power  of  the  devil ;  and  of  this  temperance  gos- 
pel Mr.  Moody  is  a  chief  apostle.  He  does  not  make  him- 
self into  the  likeness  of  a  drunken  fool  on  the  platform  for 
the  sake  of  drawing  people  to  hear  him.  He  comes  before 
them  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  invites  the  drunkards  to  be  saved  by  the  very  same 
grace,  and  in  fulfillment  of  the  very  same  promise,  which  he 
offers  to  sinners  seeking  to  be  saved  from  other  forms  of 
sin.  Mr.  Sankey  does  not  find  it  necessary  to  sing  tem- 
perance songs,  so  called  ;  but  he  sings  the  Gospel  Songs  and 
the  grand  old  hymns  of  the  Church,  such  as  "  Rescue  the 
Perishing,"  "  The  Ninety  and  Nine,"  and  "  Jesus,  lover  of  my 
soul."  Prayer  is  offered  for  a  thing  which  hitherto  has  been 
regarded  as  well-nigh  impossible,  namely,  the  deliverance  of  a 
drunkard  from  his  own  appetite  for  strong  drink  by  the  im- 
mediate exercise  of  divine  grace ;  and  in  order  to  gain  a  place 
in  these  prayers  written  requests  in  great  numbers  are  sent 
up  to  be  read,  every  one  of  which  is  a  revelation  of  some 
great  and  perhaps  long-hidden  sorrow. 

';  You  lose  much  of  the  sense  of  power  and  tenderness 
which  these  letters  would  produce  if  you  were  to  read  them 
all  as  I  do,"  said  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davis,  into  whose  hands  this 
prayer  correspondence  was  committed.  ''  I  can  only  sum- 
marize them  for  you,  but  the  writing  on  some  of  these  pages 
is  enough  to  make  the  angels  weep." 

At  the  first  of  the  series  of  Chicago  Gospel  Temperance 
meetings  Mr.   Moody  gave  the   following   address,  based  on 


5 16      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

the  account  of  the  boy  possessed  of  the  dumb  devil,  who  was 
brought  to  the  disciples  by  his  father  while  Christ  was  on 
the  mount  of  transfiguration. 


THE  DEVIL  CAST  OUT. 

"The  disciples  were  in  great  trouble.  The  scribes  and 
Pharisees  had  gathered  around  them  for  the  sake  of  getting 
up  an  argument,  and  right  in  the  midst  of  it  up  comes  this 
man,  bringing  his  boy  (foaming  and  writhing  and  gnashing  his 
teeth)  for  the  purpose  of  having  the  disciples  cast  the  devil 
out  of  him  ;  but  the  devil  refused  to  go. 

It  seems  they  had  got  their  eyes  off  from  Christ.  He  and 
the  leaders  of  the  band,  Peter,  James,  and  John,  were  away 
on  the  mountain,  and  I  suppose  they  felt  weak  and  anxious 
on  that  account.  Just  so  it  is  with  the  Church.  Whenever 
they  get  their  eyes  off  Christ  their  faith  begins  to  fail,  and 
then  the  devil  lias*  them  at  a  disadvantage. 

"But  the  Master  comes  back  just  in  time,  and  when  he 
hears  what  has  happened  he  rebukes  the  disciples. 

"  '  O  faithless  and  perverse  generation,'  he  says,  'how  long 
shall  I  be  with  you  ?  how  long  shall  I  suffer  you  ?  bring  him 
unto  me.' 

"  Now,  my  friends,  a  good  many  of  you  are  just  like  those 
disciples.  You  say  this  rum  devil  is  too  hard  to  be  cast 
out.  But  if  the  Master  were  to  come  he  would  rebuke  you 
and  say,  '  O  faithless  generation!  Was  not  the  Son  of  God 
manifested  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil  ? '  And  if  this 
is  not  one  of  the  works  of  the  devil,  I  should  like  to  know 
what  is.  It  is  easy  enough  for  Christ  to  cast  out  this  rum 
devil,  and  what  we  want  to  do  is  to  bring  the  possessed 
drunkard  to  him. 

"  We  read  that  when  they  brought  the  boy  to  Christ, 
'Straightway  the  spirit  tare  him;  and  he  fell  on  the  ground, 
and  wallowed  foaming.'  The  devil  always  tries  to  throw 
people  down  when  they  are  coming  to  Christ.  That,  above 
all  others,  is  the  very  thing  he  don't  want  them  to  do. 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.  517 

"  '  How  long  has  he  been  this  way? '  asks  Christ. 

"  '  From  his  childhood,'  answers  the  father. 

"  Now  there  are  a  good  many  people  who  say,  '  O  there  is 
no  hope  for  such  a  man  !  He  has  been  a  drunkard  for  twenty 
years  ;  he  has  always  been  fond  of  liquor  ;  he  inherited  the 
love  of  it  from  his  father  or  mother.'  The  father  of  this  boy 
seems  to  have  had  much  the  same  kind  of  a  notion,  for  he 
says,  '  If  thou  canst  do  any  thing,  have  compassion  on  us 
and  help  us.'  There  is  one  of  the  devil's  '  ifs,'  you  see. 
This  man  put  the  'if  in  the  wrong  place,  and  Christ  had 
to  show  him  where  it  belonged.  '  If  thou  canst  do  any 
thing,'  says  the  man.  '  If  thou  canst  believe,'  says  Christ. 
That  is  where  the  '  if  comes  in. 

"  Some  of  you  mothers  have  intemperate  sons,  and  you  have 
been  trying  all  sorts  of  ways  to  save  them,  but  the  poor  fel- 
lows are  not  saved  yet.  Now  the  thing  for  you  to  do  is,  to 
bring  them  right  to  Christ,  and  ask  him  not  to  reform  them, 
but  to  regenerate  them.  It  is  just  as  easy  for  Christ  to  take 
the  appetite  for  strong  drink  out  of  a  man  as  to  do  any  thing 
else  for  him.  When  we  held  temperance  prayer-meetings 
in  New  York  people  used  sometimes  to  come  in  half  drunk; 
but  the  young  converts  would  take  them,  and  talk  and 
pray  with  them,  and  God  converted  some  of  them  right  out 
of  the  midst  of  a  spree.  There  was  one  man,  a  Frenchman, 
who  came  in  one  night  all  in  rags.  I  thought  he  was  rather 
a  hard  case,  but  the  young  converts  had  faith  that  he  could 
be  saved,  so  they  went  to  work  at  him.  The  next  night  he 
came  back  again  sober,  and  on  the  third  night  he  stood  up  in 
the  meeting  and  said.  '  I  was  praying  on  my  knees  last  night, 
and  all  at  once  Cod  gave  me  a  new  heart.  I  jumped  right 
up,  I  felt  so  light  and  happy.  I  hardly  knew  myself.  I  was 
a  new  man  in  old  clothes.' 

"  That  is  just  what  we  want.  Don't  begin  with  the  clothes ; 
begin  with  the  man.  Let  us  have  some  new  men.  The 
clothes  will  all  come  right  if  we  only  get  the  man  right." 


1 3       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 


THE  LOST  ONE  FOUND. 

At    another   densely   crowded   Friday  temperance    meeting 
Mr.  Moody  said  : — 

"  It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  these  expressions  :  '  I  am.' 
'  I  am  the  bread  of  life,'  '  I  am  the  light  of  the  world.'  Some 
one  has  said,  God  gave  Moses  a  blank  check  when  he  sent  him 
down  into  Egypt.  'Who  shall  I  say  sent  me?'  asked  Moses. 
'Say  that  I  AM  hath  sent  you.'  God  was  every  thing  to  him 
that  he  wanted — deliverance — a  path  through  the  sea — bread 
from  heaven — water  from  the  rock — victory  over  enemies. 
All  he  had  to  do  was  to  take  the  '  I  AM  '  and  fill  it  out  accord- 
ing to  his  needs. 

"  The  hope  for  every  lost  man  is  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  was 
lifted  up  upon  the  cross  for  him.  He  only  can  deliver  the 
captives.  He  is  not  from  this  world,  but  from  above,  and 
this  he  proves  to  the  world  by  giving  himself  to  die  for  it,  as 
he  says  here  in  the  twenty-eighth  verse, '  When  ye  have  lifted 
up  the  Son  of  man,  then  shall  ye  know  that  I  am  he,  and  that 
I  do  nothing  of  myself ;  . .  .  and  he  that  sent  me  is  with  me.  . . . 
If  ye  continue  in  my  word,  then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed ; 
and  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free.'   John  viii,  28,  31. 

"'What  makes  you  say  that  to  us?'  answered  the  proud 
Jews.  'We  were  never  in  bondage  to  any  man;  how  sayest 
thou,  "  Ye  shall  be  made  free  ?  "  '  What  a  lie  !  In  four  hun- 
dred years  they  had  been  carried  away  captive  eight  different 
times.  They  had  been  slaves  in  Egypt,  in  Assyria,  in  Baby- 
lon, and  now  they  were  under  the  Roman  yoke.  Besides, 
they  were  in  a  miserable  bondage  to  their  own  religious 
forms  and  traditions,  and,  worse  than  all.  they  were  slaves  of 
sin  and  the  devil ;  and  so  is  every  one  of  you  here  who  is  not 
saved  by  believing  on  the  Son  of  God.  '  If  the  Son  therefore 
shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed.'  That  is  the 
hope  of  all  the  drunkards  in  this  hall.  Let  them  come  to 
Christ  at  once,  and  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  sin. 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.  519 

"We  arc  not  here  to-day  to  discuss  the  evils  of  intemper- 
ance. There  is  no  need  to  do  that  any  more,  for  almost 
every  body  is  convinced  that  it  is  a  terrible  sin.  Nor  is  it 
our  business  to  try  to  find  out  who  is  to  blame  for  it.  There 
arc  some  people  who  spend  a  great  deal  of  time  in  trying  to 
discover  the  origin  of  evil ;  but  if  a  man  had  fallen  into  the 
lake  and  was  drowning,  you  wouldn't  stop  and  try  to  find  out 
how  he.  came  to  tumble  in.  The  first  thing  would  be  to 
pull  him  out.  So  it  isn't  worth  our  while  to  argue  over  the 
cases  of  these  people  who  are  drowning  in  drunkenness,  but 
rather  to  show  them  how  to  get  hold  of  the  hand  of  God,  who 
is  able  to  pull  them  out  and  save  them,  body  and  soul. 

"  There  is  one  verse  in  the  third  chapter  of  John  which  I 
want  to  call  your  attention  to:  'That  which  is  born  of  the 
flesh  is  flesh;  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.' 
Now,  as  I  understand  it,  there  is  no  hope  for  any  drunkard 
till  he  has  been  born  of  God.  A  resolution  can't  save  him. 
Signing  the  pledge  can't  save  him.  All  the  temperance  soci- 
eties in  the  world  can't  save  him.  All  these  things  which  a 
man  does  in  his  own  strength  belong  to  the  flesh,  which  God 
has  stamped  with  the  seal  of  death. 

"  I  notice  men  don't  like  to  take  God's  remedy  till  they  have 
tried  every  other.  But,  my  friends,  there  is  no  hope  for  any 
of  you  till  you  get  done  trying  to  save  yourselves.  The  word 
of  God  tells  us  'in  the  flesh  dwelleth  no  good  thing;'  and 
if  God  can't  find  any  good  thing  in  us  we  may  as  well  give 
up  looking  for  it  ourselves.  What  we  need  to  do  is  to  die  to 
the  flesh  and  live  after  the  Spirit. 

"  Ynii  plant  a  kernel  of  corn  in  the  ground,  and  as  long  as 
it  doesn't  die  it  doesn't  come  up;  but  as  soon  as  it  begins  to 
die  it  begins  to  sprout.  When  a  man  gets  through  trying 
to  save  himself,  then  God  is  ready  to  save  him;  and  if  God 
gives  him  a  new  nature  in  place  of  his  old  one,  he  loses 
his  appetite  for  liquor  among  the  old  things  that  belong  to  the 
old  man.  Then  he  don't  have  to  stop  drinking,  the  thing 
stops  of  itself.  In  i  Cor.  xv,  47,  we  are  told,  '  The  first  man 
is  of  the  earth,  earthy  :   the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from 


520      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

heaven;'  and  in  2  Cor.  v,  17,  'Therefore  if  any  man  be  in 
Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature  :  old  things  have  passed  away  ; 
behold,  all  things  have  become  new.'  What  we  want  is  a 
new  creation — resurrected  men,  whose  old  nature  and  appe- 
tites are  all  gone,  and  in  whom  all  things  have  become  new. 
Don't  imagine  that  God  is  down  here  patching  up  our  old 
Adam  nature.  He  don't  waste  his  time  putting  new  wine  in 
old  bottles,  or  putting  new  patches  on  old  coats.  He  is  here 
to  make  a  new  creation,  to  raise  up  new  men  out  of  these 
thieves,  drunkards,  and  vagabonds. 

"  A  friend  in  Philadelphia  once  showed  me  a  brown-stone 
house  which  was  built  by  contract  while  the  owner  was  away, 
but  after  he  moved  into  it  he  found  that  the  front  only  had 
been  built  of  stone,  and  the  sides  were  built  of  brick,  and 
plastered  over  so  as  to  look  exactly  like  the  brown  stone. 
The  first  winter's  frost  cracked  off  the  plaster,  and  the  next 
spring  the  man  had  to  fix  it  all  over  again.  He  kept  on 
doing  this  for  several  years,  but  at  last  he  got  disgusted  with 
the  thing,  and  my  friend  said  as  he  was  going  by  the  house 
one  morning,  he  found  some  men  at  work  taking  down  the 
old  plastered  brick  wall  and  building  it  up  with  stone.  Here 
are  some  of  you  who  have  been  trying  to  reform  yourselves. 
You  have  promised  your  mother  and  your  wife  to  stop  drink- 
ing ;  you  have  got  down  on  your  knees  and  promised  it ;  you 
have  gone  before  magistrates  and  sworn  it ;  you  have  signed 
the  pledge  with  blood  from  your  own  veins,  and  thought  you 
were  going  to  keep  it,  but  you  failed. 

"Heaven  is  filled  with  twice-born  people ;  they  are  born 
once  after  the  flesh,  and  they  are  born  again  after  the  Spirit. 

"  Here  are  a  couple  of  letters  that  I  have  received,  that  are 
enough  to  break  a  man's  heart.  One  of  them  is  a  wail  from 
Scotland.  A  father,  whose  only  son  may  be  in  this  hall  to- 
day, has  written  this  letter  to  a  pastor,  who  is  a  friend  of  mine. 
He  says  : — 

"  'We  can  only  pray  that  God  will  bless  Mr,  Moody's  efforts,  that  he 
may  be  able  to  bring  our  dear  Willie  to  Christ.  He  is  a  man  of  edu- 
cation, and  we  have  never  heard  of  his  doing  any  thing  bad  except  to 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         521 

drink.  How  long,  O  Lord,  shall  this  curse  prevail,  that  breaks  the 
hearts  of  fathers  and  mothers  by  the  ruin  of  their  precious  sons  ?  It 
Mr.  Moody  finds  him  let  him  bring  before  his  mind  the  comforts  that 
his  father  has  denied  himself  to  give  his  son  an  education,  and  tell 
him  also  of  his  broken-hearted  mother,  whose  gray  hairs  he  is  bring- 
ing with  sorrow  to  the  grave.' 

"  Here  is  another  : — 

" '  October  26. — Mr.  Moody  :  I  write  to  beg  you  to  include  my  case 
with  those  which  will  be  presented  to  the  meeting  to-morrow  for 
prayer.  I  do  not  drink,  but  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  using  opium. 
I  used  to  use  both,  but  I  have  dropped  the  liquor  on  my  last  birthday, 
October  1,  which  was  also  the  birthday  of  your  services  in  this  city. 
By  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  I  have  been  able  to  give  up  the  liquor  with- 
out difficulty,  and  now  I  am  praying  for  release  from  the  terrible  opium 
habit.  I  have  tried  to  break  it  off  by  degrees,  but  that  was  too  slow, 
so  I  decided  to  stop  at  once.  If  you  ever  knew  such  a  case  you  know 
how  terrible  it  is.  I  could  not  work,  I  could  not  sit  still,  1  could  not 
lie  still.  It  is  not  the  appetite  for  opium,  but  the  fearful  nervous  pros- 
tration which  comes  of  leaving  it  off.  Let  me  beg  of  you  to  pray  for 
me.     I  have  faith  to  believe  that  God  can  save  me.' 

"We  had  such  a  case  as  this  in  New  York.  There  was  a 
man  who  had  been  an  opium  eater  for  eighteen  years.  He 
used  to  take  enough  every  day  to  kill  a  dozen  men,  but  the 
Spirit  of  God  began  to  work  upon  him,  and  he  asked  us  to 
pray  for  him.  One  of  the  young  converts  invited  him  to  his 
house,  at  the  same  time  sending  around  word  to  his  family  that 
he  was  to  stay  for  a  few  days;  and  there  the  young  converts 
gathered  around  him,  and  held  him  in  the  arms  of  their  faith 
till  the  struggle  was  over,  and  the  man  was  free  from  the  ter- 
rible curse.  For  seven  months  now,  he  says,  he  has  had  no  de- 
sire for  opium,  and  the  last  time  I  was  in  New  York  I  found 
him  actively  engaged  in  work  for  Christ.  Let  me  tell  you, 
my  friends,  the  Son  of  God  can  save  you  from  all  these 
things.  He  is  able  to  save  unto  the  uttermost  all  who  come 
unto  God  through  him." 

Mr.  Moody  then  offered  prayer,  at  times  quite  overcome  by 
emotion,  to  which  the  great  congregation  responded  with  tears, 


522       Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workrs. 

and  sighs,  and  earnest  "  Aniens."  After  the  prayer  Mr.  Sankey 
sang  the  solo  "Almost  Persuaded"  with  tender  effect. 

The  sad,  tender  letter  from  the  parents  of  Scotch  "Willie  " 
led  to  most  happy  results.  The  evangelists  and  their  co- 
worker, Mr.  Sawyer,  were  on  the  watch  for  him,  Mr.  Moody's 
heart  being  especially  turned  toward  the  poor  wanderer.  "  Be- 
cause," said  he,  "  my  only  boy  is  also  named  Willie."  At  last, 
after  several  weeks'  watching  and  inquiry,  a  poor  fellow,  home- 
less and  helpless,  presented  himself  among  the  inquirers  at 
the  reformed  men's  meeting,  at  the  inquiry  room  in  the  Tab- 
ernacle, whose  Scotch  accent  led  Mr.  Sawyer  to  ask  him  his 
name. 

"Willie ,"  he  replied. 

"  O,  you  are  the  very  man  we  have  been  looking  for,"  said 
Brother  Sawyer. 

"  Looking  for  me  !  how's  that  ?  " 

"There's  a  letter  for  you  from  your  father  and  mother." 

At  this  announcement  the  poor  young  man  almost  fainted 
with  surprise  and  joy.  He  thought  he  was  a  castaway,  and 
had  no  idea  that  any  of  his  friends  would  ever  own  him 
again  :  he  had  sinned  against  them  so  much,  and  fallen  so  low. 
But  the  love  of  his  father  and  mother,  like  the  love  of  the 
Saviour,  had  outlived  all  his  abuse'  of  it,  and  the  wanderer 
was  not  only  found  for  his  parents  in  Scotland,  but  also  for 
his  Father  and  his  Saviour  in  heaven. 

At  the  next  Friday  temperance  meeting  Mr.  Moody  called 
on  "Willie"  to  give  his  experience,  at  the  same  time  refer- 
ring again  to  the  letter. 

Willi  such  a  sad  history  for  an  introduction,  no  wonder  the 
great  audience  listened  with  rapt  attention  while  the  lost-one- 
found,  a  slight,  florid,  Scotch  laddie,  of  perhaps  thirty  years 
of  age,  gave  the  following  account  of  himself: — 

"  Twenty  years  ago  I  was  a  happy  boy,  starting  out  from  my  home 
in  Scotland  to  a  school  in  a  distant  city.  My  father  thought  to  make 
me  a  doctor,  but  my  mother  hoped  I  would  be  a  minister.  At  school  I 
fell  in  with  evil  companions,  and  as  the  result,  my  life  has  been  one  long 
day  of  debauchery,  the  memory  of  which  has  lashed  me  with  a  whip 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         523 

of  scorpions.  When  I  was  twenty  years  old  I  went  away  to  Aus- 
tralia, and  rushed  through  that  country  as  a  gold-seeker.  It  , 
growing  homesick,  I  came  back  to  Europe,  and  landed  in  Amster- 
dam. My  father  came  to  meet  me,  and  after  awhile  secured  m.-a 
responsible  position  in  a  dry-goods  house.  I  married  one  of  the 
sweetest  little  women  that  ever  drew  the  breath  of  life,  the  daughter 
of  a  minister,  and  a  Christian.  In  three  years  she  died  of  a  broken 
heart  on  my  account,  and  when  I  shut  down  the  black  coffin-lid 
over  her  while  face  I  felt  as  if  my  last  hope  was  gone.  We  had  one 
daughter,  and  when  I  took  the  little  child  in  my  arms  and  bade  her 
good-bye,  to  go  out  and  wander  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  she  gave 
me  a  hug  as  of  iron  ;  her  tears  burnt  into  me  ;  and  she  said,  '  Papa, 
will  you  be  long  away  ?'  From  that  time  I  roamed  the  wide  world 
over,  miserable,  hungry,  naked — a  blot  on  the  face  of  tin-  earth. 
When  1  first  came  to  Chicago  I  tried  for  awhile  to  do  better;  obtained 
a  situation  in  a  house  which  sent  me  out  to  travel  ;  but  with  plenty 
of  money  I  went  back  to  my  cups  again  ;  lost  my  situation,  lost  my 
friends,  lost  all.     Then  I  missed  my  mother! 

"  On  Friday  last  I  came  into  this  hall,  and  went  into  the  inquiry- 
room  after  the  meeting  was  over.  Mr.  Sawyer  asked  me  my  name, 
said  lu-  had  been  looking  for  me  for  six  weeks,  and  told  me  there  was 
a  letter  for  me  from  my  father  and  mother.  •  Then  they  prayed  for 
me.  Man  could  not  save  me,  but  I  bowed  at  the  foot  of  the  cross, 
and  asked  the  mercy  of  Him  who  died  on  it  for  me,  and  He  saved  me. 
And  now  I  would  rather  live  on  crusts  of  bread  moistened  only  with 
my  tears  than  go  back  to  the  life  of  sin  from  which  I  have  been 
saved." 

The  vast  congregation  could  not  restrain  its  tears.  Thou- 
sands were  weeping;  and  when  Mr.  Moody,  with  his  voice 
full  of  sobs  and  tears,  poured  out  a  prayer  to  God  to  bless 
this  lost-one-found,  and  make  him  a  preacher  of  righteous- 
ls  Ids  godly  mother  had  designed,  the  scene  was  beyond 
description  for  tenderness  and  emotion 


"  RECONSTRUCTED  MEN." 

"You  remember,"  slid  Mr.  Moody,  "that  last  Friday  we  had 
the  testimony  of  several  converts  to  the  fact  that  the  grace 
of  God   had  saved  them    from    the  appetite   for  strong  drink. 


524      Moody:  his  Words — Work— Workers. 

After  that  meeting  a  good  many  people  said  to  me,  '  Do  you 
think  this  tiling  will  last,  or  is  the  tiger  only  chained  for  a 
little  while,  and  will  he  not  break  away  again  ?  '  Now  I  want  to 
introduce  some  witnesses  who  have  stood  for  years;  but  first 
I  want  to  introduce  the  testimony  of  the  word  of  God.  In 
i  Peter  v,  5,  we  have  these  words:  'Be  clothed  with  humil- 
ity: for  God  resisteth  the  proud,  and  giveth  grace  to  the  hum- 
ble.' The  great  danger  to  these  reconstructed  men  is  pride, 
self-confidence.  There  was  a  time  when  I  used  to  pick  up 
these  men  and  take  them  into  my  room  and  keep  them  day 
and  night  to  help  them  out  of  the  clutches  of  this  terrible 
devil,  and  they  got  on  well  just  as  long  as  they  trusted  wholly 
in  Christ,  and  put  no  faith  in  themselves.  This  text  is  like  a 
bell  on  a  rock  at  sea  to  warn  the  ships  of  danger.  O,  how 
many  a  soul  has  been  wrecked  on  this  rock  of  pride  !  It  is 
not  the  reformed  drunkards  only;  all  other  Christians  are  in 
danger;  but  if  a  man  walks  humbly  with  his  God  he  will  be 
kept.  Job  says,  '  For  he  shall  save  the  humble  person  ;'  and 
in  Isaiah,  the  fifty-seventh  chapter  and  fifteenth  verse,  is  the 
remarkable  text,  'For  thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy,  I  dwell  in  the  high 
and  holy  place,  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and  hum- 
ble spirit,  to  revive  the  spirit  of  the  humble,  and  to  revive 
the  heart  of  the  contrite  ones.' 

"  It  takes  the  same  grace  to  keep  us  that  it  took  to  save  us. 
That  is  the  reason  some  ministers  fall ;  they  get  proud  and 
begin  to  trust  in  themselves.  Now  let  us  make  this  the  key- 
note of  this  meeting — humility." 

Mr.  Moody  then  offered  prayer,  after  which  the  solo  and 
chorus  was  sung  entitled  "  The  Light  of  the  World  is  Jesus." 

"  Now,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  "  I  am  going  to  call  some  of  these 
witnesses.  They  may  be  embarrassed,  because  they  are  not 
accustomed  to  speak  to  such  large  audiences;  still  it  is  not 
the  most  flippant  and  fluent  witnesses  who  make  the  greatest 
impression,  but  those  who  tell  the  most  truth." 

Mr.  Carl  Irland,  a  commercial  traveler,  gave  his  ex- 
perience as  follows : — 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         525 

"  I  assure  you  it  is  any  thing  but  pleasant  for  us  to  recall 
those  horrible  and  ghastly  memories  of  the  times  when  we  were 
in  the  power  of  the  enemy  ;  but  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  those 
who  need  to  come  to  him  for  the  same  help  we  have  received, 
we  give  you  our  experience  to-day.  I  used  to  be  a  'commercial 
traveler,'  and  sold  goods  both  from  Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  It 
was  by  the  advice  of  a  physician  that  I  first  began  to  take 
■\vhisk\-,  being  afflicted  with  a  lung  disease  ;  and  after  awhile 
it  created  such  an  appetite  that  I  was  not  able  to  resist  it.  I 
was  a  member  of  the  Church;  but  in  my  business  relations  1 
used  to  meet  people  every  day  who  would  say  to  me  the  first 
thing  when  I  would  enter  their  store,  '  Have  a  glass  of  whisky 
with  me.  I  have  just  got  in  ten  gallons  of  the  best  Bourbon 
that  ever  went  out  of  Bourbon  County.'  And  there  was  no 
use  in  trying  to  be  a  temperance  man  in  that  line  of  life. 

"  I  was  the  only  son  of  Christian  parents  ;  I  had  joined  the 
Good  Templars  ;  but,  in  spite  of  my  religious  education, 
and  the  influence  of  the  temperance  society,  I  went  on  from 
bad  to  worse,  being  bound  by  a  mightier  power  than  I  was 
able  to  resist.  Every  day  Satan  used  to  pay  me  bigger  and 
bigger  wages — '  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  ' — and  after  awhile 
it  used  to  be  my  custom,  when  I  sold  goods  enough  so  that 
my  house  would  not  be  dissatisfied,  to  spend  the  rest  of  the 
day  in  a  way  I  do  not  care  to  describe.  I  soon  began  to  find 
it  necessary  to  take  a  drink  nearly  every  half  hour. 

"Three  or  four  times  I  have  stood  on  the  deck  of  a  vessel 
determined  to  drown  myself;  twice  I  have  put  my  revolver 
to  my  head  to  blow  out  the  brains  that  had  become  so  full  of 
shame  and  sorrow.  But  the  face  of  a  gray-haired  woman, 
looking  out  of  a  cottage  window  with  flowers  and  vines  about 
it,  used  to  rise  up  before  me,  and  the  thought  that  her  heart 
would  be  broken  at  such  a  death  for  her  son,  kept  me  from 
putting  an  end  to  my  miserable  life.  Existence  was  hateful. 
In  the  morning  I  used  to  wish  it  were  night,  and  when  night 
came,  I  prayed  to  God  to  let  it  be  morning. 

"One  Sunday  in  the  month  of  June,  I  think  it  was,  I  took  a 
skiff  and  crossed  over  the  Mississippi  River  to  get  away  where 


526     Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

I  might  put  an  end  to  my  life.  But  when  I  reached  the 
place  a  flood  of  childhood's  memories  came  rushing  over  me, 
and  then  this  text  of  Scripture  from  the  third  chapter  of 
Proverbs,  which  my  mother  had  taught  me  when  I  was  a  little 
child,  seemed  to  be  burned  into  my  mind,  '  In  all  thy  ways 
acknowledge  him,  and  he  shall  direct  thy  paths.'  I  had  not 
been  acknowledging  God.  I  had  been  going  in  my  own  paths, 
but  I  resolved,  if  God's  mercy  was  long  enough  to  reach  me, 
I  would  accept  it;  and  then  I  took  the  skiff  and  went  back 
over  the  river,  and  up  into  my  room  to  read  the  Scripture  and 
to  pray. 

"  It  was  a  struggle  almost  equal  to  death,  but  I  said,  if  I  die 
I  will  die  a  sober  man.  That  Scripture  in  the  nineteenth 
chapter  of  Luke  and  the  tenth  verse  seemed  to  come  with 
light  and  hope  to  me,  '  For  the  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.'  For  three  weeks  nearly  the 
struggle  went  on  in  my  room,  but  at  last  the  Lord  gave  me 
victory,  and  since  that  day  I  have  taken  no  liquor  to  drink, 
nor  have  I  had  any  wish  for  it. 

"  And  now  let  me  say  to  any  drunkards  who  are  here,  who 
have  tried  to  break  off  drinking  and  failed,  Come  to  Christ ;  he 
has  mercy  for  you,  he  will  save  you.  And  you,  mothers, 
whose  hearts  are  breaking  over  your  wandering  sons,  don't 
give  up — keep  on  praying — and  God  will  give  you  back  your 
sons,  and  save  them  by  the  power  of  his  grace." 

"Mr.  Sharp,  well  known  in  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation circles  for  several  years  past  as  an  active  Christian 
worker,  was  called  upon  by  Mr.  Moody,  and  gave  his  experi- 
ence as  follows : — 

"  If  any  of  you  think  this  is  an  easy  thing  to  do  I  will  tell 
you  to  the  contrary.  I  never  felt  so  strange  in  all  my  life. 
But  for  the  encouragement  of  some  poor  drunkard,  such 
as  I  once  was  myself,  I  will  tell  you  some  of  my  own  his- 
tory. Eight  and  a  half  years  ago  I  left  London  for  America, 
at  the  earnest  request  of  my  wife,  lest  my  dissipated  habits 
should  bring  disgrace  upon  my  children.  I  had  sold  out 
three  homes  for  liquor,  and  the  fourth  hadn't  any  thing  in  it 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         527 

fit  to  sell.  I  had  been  weaned  on  liquor — my  father  and 
mother  were  both  intemperate — and  I  was  a  perfect  slave  to 
this  appetite.  I  came  to  America  a  drunkard,  and  the  first 
1  spent  in  saloons  and  gambling  dens.  Twice  I  have 
had  a  pistol  at  my  head  with  the  thought  that  life  was  no 
longer  endurable.  But  when  I  came  to  Chicago  I  went  into 
the  home  of  an  old  school-fellow,  whose  Christian  life  was  the 
means  of  winning  me  to  the  Saviour.  The  Lord  took  away 
my  taste  for  liquor  when  he  converted  my  soul;  not  by  de- 
grees, but  all  at  once.  And  I  want  to  invite  any  man  here 
who  is  the  victim  of  liquor  to  give  himself  to  Christ,  and  let 
the  grace  of  God  make  him  altogether  new." 

To  this  narration  Mr.  Moody  added  the  pleasant  fact  that 
the  family  of  this  brother  were  reunited  and  now  living  hap- 
pily in  Chicago. 

Mr.  William  Murray,  a  well-known  member  of  the  Chi- 
cago  board  of  Trade,  said  he  had  been  a  drunkard  for  twenty 
years  ;  knew  all  about  the  use  of  strong  drink  ;  had  tried 
to  reform  himself  by  resolutions  and  pledges,  but  had  failed, 
and  at  la>t.  about  six  months  ago,  he  went  to  Christ  for  a  new 
heart,  and  with  it  found  grace  to  overcome  his  old  enemy, 
lie  then  thought  he  was  safe;  but  relying  on  himself,  and 
trifling  with  drink,  he  fell;  but  the  Son  of  God  lifted  him  up 
again  when  he  trusted  all  to  him. 

Mr.  R.  W.  DlLLER,  of  Springfield,  111.,  then  arose,  and 
said  :— 

"  I  would  like  every  Christian  in  the  house  to  pray  for  me 
while  I  try  to  speak.  That  is  what  I  told  some  fifty  of  my 
friends  at  Springfield,  and  I  think  they  are  praying  for  me  at 
this  hour. 

"  I  don't  know  the  time  when  I  didn't  drink.  I  can  remem- 
ber, when  1  was  a  little  bey,  being  carried  on  men's  shoulders 
in  a  drinking  saloon,  ami  given  the  sugar  out  of  the  bottom 
of  the  When   1  came  out  to  this  Western  country 

;.  into  the  drug  business,  and  aftei  awhile  I  got  into  the 
\va\  of  drinking  from  a  pint  to  a  quart  of  liquor  every  day 
Sometimes  during  those  years  1  would  'get  oi\  with  whisky, 


528      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

as  the  drinkers  call  it,  and  have  to  stop  drinking  for  awhile 
to  recuperate  my  nervous  system.  While  I  was  thus  abstain- 
ing I  used  to  boast  of  myself  what  a  good  fellow  I  was ;  like 
the  man  who  felt  so  proud  at  being  able  to  go  by  a  tavern 
that  he  went  back,  as  he  said, '  to  treat  resolution.' 

"I  don't  like  to  say  it,  but  I  believe  the  Christian  Church 
is  responsible  for  half  the  drunkenness  in  this  country.  If  they 
would  only  take  such  people  as  I  and  my  friends  here  by  the 
hand,  and  help  us  out  of  bad  company,  and  cry  aloud  against 
the  saloons  that  are  ruining  so  many  souls  and  bodies,  there 
would  not  be  half  so  much  drunkenness  as  there  is. 

"  In  1866  I  was  a  respectable  drunkard.  I  drank  behind  my 
counter  and  prescription  desk.  I  didn't  lie  around  the  saloons. 
When  Mr.  Hammond  came  to  Springfield  that  year  to  hold  re- 
vival meetings  my  wife,  who  was  a  Quaker,  went  to  hear  him, 
and  came  back  disgusted.  Men  used  to  go  to  his  meetings, 
and  then  come  to  my  store,  and  say,  '  Hammond  said  so-and- 
so,'  and  then  we  would  laugh  over  it.  But  my  boy  and  girl, 
who  went  to  the  meeting,  came  home  very  much  improved, 
and  I  found  them  studying  the  Bible  ;  so  I  forbid  them 
attending  the  meetings  any  more,  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
get  them  so  excited  that  they  couldn't  attend  to  their  les- 
sons. But  when  my  son  asked  me  for  permission  to  go  after 
school-hours,  and  said  that  all  the  other  children  were  going, 
I  yielded,  and  allowed  them  to  go  again.  Well,  one  Tuesday 
he  came  home  happy.  He  had  been  converted.  On  Wed- 
nesday my  daughter  was  converted;  on  Thursday  my  wife, 
in  spite  of  what  she  had  said,  went  to  the  meeting,  and  she 
was  converted  ;  and  also  a  little  girl  that  we  were  raising. 
You  can  see  that  they  were  making  it  hot  for  me.  My  load 
began  to  get  very  heavy.  I  complained  to  my  wife  for  not 
having  dinner  ready  on  time,  so  that  I  might  get  ba~k  at 
once  to  my  store  and  my  companions.  I  didn't  like  the 
house.  The  store,  I  thought,  was  the  place  for  me.  But  one 
day,  as  I  was  going  out  from  dinner,  my  wife  said  to  me  : — 

"  '  Wont  thee  go  to  the  meeting?  ' 

"  '  No,  I  wont,'  said  I. 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.  529 

*  '  Wont  thee  go  and  look  in  ? ' 

"'No.* 

"  '  If  thee  was  to  die  what  would  become  of  thee  ? ' 

"  '  I  should  go  to  hell,'  said  I. 

"  '  When  does  thee  expect  to  repent  ? ' 

"  '  Ovsome  time.' 

"  '  When  will  that  some  time  be  ? ' 

"  Ah  !  that  went  through  me  like  an  arrow.  Every-where 
I  heard  the  question, '  When  will  it  be  ?    When  will  it  be? ' 

"  The  next  Sunday  1  went  to  meeting,  and  all  the  time 
the  minister  seemed  .to  be  talking  to  me,  and  whenever 
he  pointed  his  finger  it  seemed  to  be  pointed  at  me.  I  was 
angry.  Why  did  he  preach  all  at  me  when  there  were  fifty 
others  in  the  house  who  needed  it  just  as  much  ? 

"There  was  going  to  be  an  open-air  meeting  that  Sunday 
afternoon,  and  my  wife  wanted  me  to  attend,  but  I  said, '  No.' 
I  was  going  to  see  a  man  who  was  sick,  some  ways  out  of  town. 
But  we  started  out  together,  and  before  I  knew  just  where  I 
was  there  we  stood  right  before  the  preacher,  Mr.  Hammond, 
and  I  had  to  stay  there  two  mortal  hours.  Presently  I  began 
to  feel  a  great  load — my  heart  seemed  to  weigh  a  ton.  My 
wife  and  all  the  children  stood  up  to  confess  Christ,  but  I 
could  not  stand  up.     That  troubled  me  too. 

"  One  day  my  son  said  to  me,  '  Papa,  why  can't  we  have 
family  prayers  just  as  they  do  at  uncle's?'  That  cut  through 
me;  to  think  of  an  old  gray-haired  man  who  couldn't  pray 
when  his  son  asked  him.  One  night  my  wife  sat  up  to  pray 
for  me,  and  in  the  morning  she  said,  '  How  did  thee  sleep?  ' 
'Very  well,'  I  said.  It  was  as  big  a  lie  as  I  ever  told  in  my 
life.  Then  I  rose  for  prayers  in  one  of  the  meetings,  but  it 
seemed  as  if  I  had  to  pull  up  the  State-house  with  me.  For 
two  nights  and  three  days  1  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep,  and 
at  last  I  sent  for  Elder  Prentice,  a  Methodist  preacher,  who 
used  to  be  just  such  a  man  as  I  was,  and  when  he  came 
I  said, — 

"  '  bill,  1  am  in  great  distress.' 

"  '  I  am  mighty  glad  of  it,'  savs  he 
23 


530      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

"  '  What  will  I  do  to  get  out  of  this  ?  ' 

"'There  is  nothing  can  help  you  a  bit  only  the  blood  of 
Christ.     Up  and  believe  ! ' 

"And  I  did.  I  began  to  pray,  and  instead  of  praying  to 
God  as  one  that  was  a  good  way  off,  I  whispered  right  into 
his  ear,  and  he  saved  me.  I  felt  so  light  and  airy  that  you 
could  have  carried  me  on  top  of  your  little  finger.  Then  we 
set  up  the  family  altar,  and  there  were  five  new-born  souls 
around  it.     I  couldn't  contain  myself  for  joy. 

"  My  appetite  for  liquor  left  me,  and  for  three  years  I  had 
none  of  it.  But  one  day  when  I  was  ill  the  old  enemy  came 
back  with  terrible  .force.  I  looked  into  a  saloon  and  saw  a 
couple  of  men  drinking  beer.  It  looked  so  foaming,  and 
cool,  and  bitter,  and  refreshing!  Just  the  thing!  Then  I 
went  down  to  my  store,  where  there  was  wine,  and  brandy, 
and  gin,  and  whisky — " 

[Mr.  Moody,  interrupting,]  "You  sold  liquor  then?" 

"Yes;  I  was  a  druggist;  I  told  you  that  to  begin  with. 
And  then  I  went  up  into  a  room  over  the  store  and  said  my 
prayers — only  said  them.  There  is  a  great  difference  between 
praying  and  saying  your  prayers.  When  I  came  down  the 
appetite  came  back.  Horror  of  horrors  !  So  I  went  back 
and  said  some  more  prayers.  But  when  I  came  down  the 
same  terrible  temptation  seized  upon  me.  You  drunkards 
know  what  it  is.  Then  I  went  back  to  that  little  room  and 
threw  myself  on  my  face  before  God,  and  I  said,  'O  God, 
is  it  thy  will  that  I  should  once  more  become  a  miserable 
drunkard  and  bring  ruin  on  myself  and  my  family?'  I  don't 
know  whether  I  prayed  five,  or  ten,  or  fifteen  minutes,  but, 
glory  be  to  God!  I  got  the  victory  over  that  appetite,  and 
have  kept  it  ever  since." 

Mr.  Diller  closed  with  an  earnest  and  well-timed  exhorta- 
tion to  drunkards  to  yield  to  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  were  urging  them  to  take  Jesus  now. 

Mr.  Moody  then  offered  an  earnest  prayer  on  behalf  of 
those  for  whom  requests  had  been  made,  and  Mr.  Sankey 
sang  the  Gospel  song,  "  Rescue  the  Perishing." 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.  531 

Mr.  Murray,  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  was  then 
called  on  to  speak,  which  he  did  very  effectively,  taking  as 
a  starting  point  the  sixteenth  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Romans,  "  For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ : 
for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that 
believeth."  In  addition  to  the  account  of  his  own  remark- 
able conversion  and  deliverance  from  the  appetite  for  strong 
drink,  under  which  he  had  labored  for  twenty  years,  Mr. 
Murray  referred  to  that  kind  of  intemperance  which  is  the 
result  of  the  use  of  fancy  cordials,  aromatic  bitters,  and  the 
like  ;  saying  that  from  his  own  observation,  as  well  as  from 
the  boasts  of  the  men  who  manufacture  these  vile  alcoholic 
poisons,  he  knew  that  drunkard-making  was  carried  on  by 
these  processes  to  an  alarming  extent.  He  spoke  gratefully 
of  his  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mitchell,  whom  he  had  met  on 
the  street  at  a  time  when  he  was  ready  to  die  of  despair,  and 
in  answer  to  whose  prayers  he  had  been  happily  converted. 
He  closed  with  an  earnest  appeal  to  the  ministers  from  the 
country  to  go  home  and  hold  up  Christ  in  their  various  com- 
munities as  the  way  by  which  drunkards  were  to  be  saved. 
"  The  Gospel  temperance  is  the  kind  of  temperance  for  me." 

Mr.  xMoody  then  called  on  Mr.  Ring,  who  confessed  to  his 
own  shame,  but  the  glory  of  Christ,  that  he  had  been  a  miser- 
able drunkard  for  thirteen  years;  had  left  the  home  of  his 
childhood,  where  his  father  and  mother  were  praying  for 
him — had  married  a  wife,  and  broken  up  half  a  dozen  homes 
for  money  to  buy  liquor — had  tried  every  means  to  reclaim 
himself— and  at  last  had  been  brought  to  Christ  through  a 
remark  made  by  Mr.  Moody,  in  which  he  quoted  the  text, 
••  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  everlasting  life." 

This  man  testified  that  in  answer  to  his  prayer  not  only  his 
desire  for  liquor,  but  also  his  appetite  for  tobacco,  had  been 
taken  entirely  away.  He  closed  with  an  earnest  exhortation 
to  moderate  drinkers,  saying,  "You  may  have  control  over 
your  appetite  now,  but  the  time  will  come  when  it  will  have 
control  over  you." 

The  next   speaker  was   Mr.  Latimer,  another  trophy  of 


532      Moody:  his  Words— Work — Workers. 

grace,  won  by  the  Gospel  from  the  lowest  depths  of  intem- 
perance.    He  said  : — 

"  It  is  not  pleasant  to  think  of  the  past — thank  God  !  it  is 
past.  I  have  been  a  drunkard  for  sixteen  years.  I  never 
was  a  moderate  drinker,  but  from  the  day  when  I  drank 
my  first  bottle  of  ale  in  the  back  room  of  a  country  store, 
sixteen  years  ago,  till  the  time  of  my  conversion  a  few 
weeks  since,  the  strongest  passion  of  my  life  was  the  love 
of  strong  drink.  I  used  to  laugh  at  the  temptation  at  first, 
and  despise  those  whom  I  found  in  the  gutter,  thinking  I 
could  control  my  appetite  as  I  pleased.  I  have  heard  the 
bullets  of  the  enemy  whistling  about  me;  a  pistol  has  been 
placed  at  my  head;  but  I  never  felt  such  a  sinking  in  my 
heart  as  I  felt  that  day  when  I  first  came  to  realize  that 
my  appetite  was  my  master. 

"  I  came  to  this  city  drunk.  I  had  no  hope.  I  fully  ex- 
pected to  go  down  to  a  drunkard's  grave.  I  sometimes  took 
thirty  or  forty  drinks  a  day,  and  was  soaked  full  of  liquor  like 
a  sponge.  I  used  to  sit  up  all  night,  and  drink  and  play  cards. 
I  was  full  all  the  time,  so  that  however  much  I  drank  it  pro- 
duced no  effect  upon  me.  While  in  that  condition  I  came 
to  the  Tabernacle  out  of  curiosity,  without  one  thought  that 
I  should  ever  be  any  thing  else  than  a  miserable  drunkard. 
I  sat  up  there  in  the  gallery  and  looked  over  the  happy  faces 
of  the  congregation,  and  it  only  made  my  heart  harder.  I  was 
angry  with  them  for  being  happy. 

"  By  and  by  Mr.  Sankey  sang  that  hymn,  '  What  shall  the 
Harvest  Be,'  and  when  he  came  to  the  third  verse — 

'  Sowing  the  seed  of  a  lingering  pain, 
Sowing  the  seed  of  a  maddened  brain, 
Sowing  the  seed  of  a  tarnished  name, 
Sowing  the  seed  of  eternal  shame, 

O,  what  shall  that  harvest  be  ! ' — 

the  words  went  through  me  like  an  arrow.  My  memory  went 
back  to  the  time  when,  a  boy  of  eighteen  years,  I  was  con> 
missioned  an  officer  in  the  army  :   I  thought  of  all  the  high 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         533 

hopes  blasted  ;  of  my  wife  and  family  made  wretched  ;  of  my 
old  mother  who  did  not  know  whether  I  was  alive  or  dead, 
but  who  I  felt  sure  was  still  praying  for  me.  I  could  not 
stand  it,  and  hurried  out  to  fill  myself  with  liquor,  and  drown 
my  convictions  in  beastly  intoxication.  But  in  my  dreams  I 
kept  hearing  the  words,  'What  shall  the  harvest  be?'  When 
I  woke  in  the  morning  those  words  were  written  on  the  walls 
of  my  room.  Every-where  I  went  they  were  staring  at  me. 
I  felt  myself  driven  to  the  inquiry  room,  though  I  could  not 
believe  that  even  the  power  of  Almighty  God  could  save  a 
man  like  me.  But  after  awhile  I  began  to  pray,  '  Jesus,  thou 
canst  save  me  ;  no  one  else  can.'  And  he  answered  my  poor 
prayer,  and  saved  me  body  and  soul.  Now,  my  friends,  if 
the  Lord  could  give  me  a  new  heart  and  take  that  appetite 
away  from  me  he  surely  can  do  it  for  every  one  of  you  ;  and 
I  pray  that  the  Spirit  of  God  may  come  and  save  you,  and 
take  away  your  appetite  and  lusts,  and  make  you  over  into 
new  men  in  Christ." 

The  next  speaker  was  Mr.  Ben  Patrick,  formerly  a  well- 
known  and  successful  railroad  man.     He  said  : — 

"Ever  since  I  entered  your  city,  twenty  years  ago  this 
morning,  I  have  been  more  or  less  a  drinking  man.  I  had 
gained  a  good  position,  had  inherited  and  earned  a  com- 
fortable fortune,  but  my  bad  habits  were  my  sorrow  and 
my  ruin.  One  week  ago  I  came  to  this  meeting,  and  I  was 
so  impressed  with  the  -service,  and  with  the  words  that 
Brother  Moody  threw  into  my  heart,  that  I  felt  a  desire  to 
go  to  the  Farwell  Hall  meeting  in  the  afternoon.  There  I 
knelt  and  prayed,  and  while  I  was  praying  I  felt  what  a  sin- 
ful man  I  had  been.  My  position,  my  fortune,  my  friends, 
all  lost — all  thrown  away  for  drink.  But  while  I  was  pray- 
ing I  seemed  to  be  surrounded  with  a  halo  of  glory,  and 
a  voice  seemed  to  come  to  me  saying,  '  Ben,  you  can  stop 
if  you  will.  I  will  stand  by  you.'  I  thought  it  must  be  my 
God  speaking  to  me.  I  felt  that  Christ  had  taken  away  all 
my  sins,  and  I  stood  up  and  said  so  to  the  friends  who  had 
been  praying  for  me.    Since  then  every  day  has  been  happiei 


534      Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

and  happier,  but  yesterday  was  the  culmination  of  all.  The 
day  that  the  halo  of  glory  came  to  me,  some  of  my  brothers 
and  sisters,  in  a  place  nine  hundred  miles  away,  were  laying 
a  plan  to  come  to  Chicago  to  see  if  they  could  not  find  some 
way  to  save  me;  but  Jesus  was  ahead  of  them." 

The  next  man  had  been  a  drunkard  for  seventeen  years. 
He  was  down  in  the  gutter,  and  God  raised  him  up.  This 
man's  experience  was  referred  to  by  Mr.  Moody  on  a  previous 
occasion  as  the  man  who  had  received  a  note  beginning  "My 
dear  friend,"  which  very  much  surprised  him,  because  he 
thought  he  had  no  friend  in  all  the  world.  His  nervous  sys- 
tem was  completely  shattered,  and  an  effort  to  conquer  his 
appetite  caused  him  to  shake  and  tremble  to  that  extent  that 
he  was  unable  to  stand  up.  He,  too,  had  found  Christ  at  the 
woman's  temperance  meeting,  and,  from  the  moment  that 
God  took  possession  of  his  soul,  all  appetite  for  liquor  had 
ceased.  Yesterday  was  the  first  holiday  of  any  sort  in  which 
he  had  not  been  drunk  for  the  last  seventeen  years.  "  I  had 
one  foot  in  the  grave,"  said  he  :  "  I  had  lost  all  hope  ;  I  ex- 
pected to  die  in  a  few  days  more,  and  I  could  see  the  bot- 
tomless pit  before  me  ;  but  Christ  has  saved  me,  and  how 
thankful  I  am  !  My  mother  died  a  few  days  ago ;  died  be- 
fore she  heard  that  I  had  been  saved;  but  I  am  satisfied  that 
she  has  heard  of  it  up  in  heaven." 

While  these  miraculous  experiences  were  repeated,  one 
after  another,  the  great  congregation  was  repeatedly  moved 
to  tears ;  and  when  that  poor  man  brought  out  the  fact  that 
yesterday  his  wife  and  child  had  come  back  to  him,  Mr. 
Moody,  with  very  many  in  the  congregation,  wept  for  joy. 

The  next  speaker  was  Mr.  Morrison,  a  Scotchman  from  the 
Highlands,  who  used  to  be  the  terror  of  the  sailors'  boarding- 
houses;  a  wild,  unmanageable,  drinking  man.  He  used  to 
carry  a  skcnc-dhu,  or  dagger,  in  his  stocking,  and  has  been 
on  the  point  of  using  it  for  murder  in  his  drunken  quarrels. 
Now  this  man  is,  and  has  been  for  several  years,  one  of  the 
most  faithful  and  useful  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation's workers.      He   has  a  Sunday-school  which  he  has 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         535 

gathered  himself,  in  one  of  the  worst  parts  of  the  city,  and 
is  a  Bible  reader  of  no  little  talent.     He  said  : — 

"  Five  years  ago  I  was  converted.  For  three  years  before 
that  time  I  averaged  half  a  bottle  of  rum  a  day,  week  days 
and  Sundays.  I  came  to  Chicago  drunk,  and  for  the  first 
twelve  months  I  ate,  drank,  and  slept  in  a  saloon  ;  not  only 
drinking  liquor  myself,  but  mixing  and  giving  it  to  others." 

Among  his  other  accomplishments,  Morrison  was  a  great 
dancer,  and  for  a  time  used  to  give  lessons  in  that  art,  by 
which  means  he  seems  to  have  been  able  to  get  up  a  step 
from  his  lair  in  the  groggery,  and  take  a  room  in  a  cheap 
boarding-house. 

"  One  night  a  man  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  and 
asked  me  to  become  a  Christian,  saying  he  would  pray 
for  me.  I  went  home  and  to  bed,  and  then  I  thought  of 
another  who  was  praying  for  me — my  old  mother  —  in  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland.  It  appeared  to  be  a  good  time  to 
seek  Christ,  and  I  began  to  feel  such  a  desire  that  I  was 
willing  to  go  anywhere  in  the  world  to  find  him.  Presently 
it  came  into  my  mind  that  God  is  every-where — my  mother 
had  taught  me  that — and  if  so,  he  must  be  in  ray  room. 
Christ  is  God,  and  so  Christ  must  be  here  ;  and  as  these 
thoughts  were  going  on  in  my  mind  I  seemed  to  hear  a  voice  : 
'  I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  he.'  And  then  another  text, 
'  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  everlasting  life.' 
'Well,'  said  I, 'I  believe  on  the  Son  of  God,  so  I  must  have 
everlasting  life.'  The  next  morning  I  got  up  a  saved  man, 
and  for  five  years  God  has  kept  me.  In  all  that  time  I  have 
never  had  one  single  thought  or  desire  for  drink.  I  was  an 
awful  smoker  and  chewer,  but  all  taste  for  tobacco  has  gone 
too.  Now,  all  this  is  nothing  that  is  in  me,  but  something 
that  is  in  Christ.  If  a  man  once  gets  this  into  him — '  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  him  might  not  perish,  but  have  everlast- 
ing life  ' — if  he  gets  this  into  him,  ami  trusts  Christ  to  save 
him  all  outside  of  himself,  like  the  Israelite  looking  at  the 
serpent  on  the  pole,  then  he  is  in  the  hands  "of  Christ,  and  is 


536      Moody:  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

safe.  I  looked  away  from  myself  to  Christ,  and  now  I  am 
saved,  and  will  be  to  the  end  of  time." 

Mr.  Moody  then  made  some  further  statements  concerning 
Morrison,  saying  he  had  been  one  of  the  hardest  cases  he 
ever  had  to  deal  with,  and  that  when  he  heard  that  he  was 
converted  he  could  hardly  believe  that  it  was  true. 

Other  statements  to  the  same  effect  were  given  :  among 
others,  one  by  Captain  Simms,  one  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  workers,  who  said  that  he  had  fallen  to  the 
lowest  depths,  but  Christ  had  raised  him  up.  He  had  been 
five  times  pulled  out  of  the  water  insensible,  and  several 
times  had  been  on  the  verge  of  delirium  tremens  j  but  when 
on  the  lake,  on  board  a  schooner  with  his  kind  friend  Captain 
M'Millen,  he  gave  his  heart  to  Christ,  lost  all  love  for  strong 
drink,  and  for  eight  years  it  had  never  once  come  back  to 
trouble  him. 

Mr.  Delight  followed,  whose  apt  and  earnest  words  were 
all  the  more  pleasing  and  effective  on  account  of  the  strong 
foreign  accent  in  which  they  were  spoken.  Mr.  Delight 
came  to  this  country  from  Portugal  when  he  was  quite  a 
young  man,  and  has  been  well  known  in  sporting  circles  for 
many  years.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  his  speech  cannot 
be  given  in  print  exactly  as  it  was  spoken,  but  the  following 
will  give  some  idea  of  it : — 

"  It  is  more  than  a  pleasure  for  me  to  come  before  you. 
Seven  or  eight  months  ago,  through  affliction — death  in  my 
family — Christ  brought  me  to  him.  I  was  a  Christian,  but  I 
was  afraid  for  great  struggles,  because  I  was  brought  up  on 
wine  from  a  little  child.  My  father  was  a  wine-grower  in 
Portugal,  and  for  forty-seven  years — I  will  be  forty-seven 
years  in  two  months  more — I  was  drinking  wine  and  liquor 
every  day  of  my  life.  I  have  kept  saloons  in  Chicago  and  sold 
whisky,  and  I  know  all  about  it.  Once  I  joined  the  Sons  of 
Temperance,  some  years  ago,  when  I  saw  I  was  going  to  the 
bad,  but  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  me  to  have  two  or 
three  drinks  every  day — the  need  of  it  was  in  my  system — and 
no  one  told  me  I  must  have  help  from  God.    I  was  very  bad. 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         537 

I  went  back  on  my- friends  and  on  my  family.  We  had  domes- 
tic troubles,  and  I  had  troubles  in  business — every  kind  of 
trouble.  You  be  sure  that  a  man  who  drinks  he  is  bound  to 
do  wrong;  there  is  no  use  of  talking.  My  friends  took  great 
interest  in  me  ;  I  was  a  sporting  man  here  for  a  long  time. 
I  said  to  them,  'I  can't  help  drinking.'  They  said,  '  You  try 
it ;  don't  go  to  the  saloons,  but  if  you  must  have  some  licjuor 
take  it  up  to  your  room.'  I  took  a  quart  of  whisky  up  to  my 
room  in  the  Ogden  House,  and  tried  to  drink  only  a  little. 
This  was  after  1  was  converted.  I  used  to  pray  and  keep 
the  family  prayers,  but  sometimes  the  old  passion  would 
come  on  me  too  strong.  After  awhile  I  say  to  myself,  'It 
can't  be  that  I  shall  serve  two  masters,'  so  I  went  to  work  in 
my  room  and  down  upon  my  knees,  and  if  ever  a  man  tried  to 
find  God  I  did.  I  was  praying,  and  praying,  and  the  appetite 
for  drink  gradually  went  away.  God  has  took  away  the  ap- 
petite, and  now  I  have  no  desire  for  whisky.  You  take  that 
for  what  it  is  worth,  but  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about. 

"  I  have  a  friend  who  comes  to  me,  and  he  says, '  I  have  gone 
long  enough  in  this  way.  I  am  always  a  drinking  man.  My 
family  is  all  right,  my  wife  is  a  Christian,  but  I  am  the  black 
sheep  of  the  flock.'  Then  he  says  to  me,  'How  did  you  stop 
drinking?  '  I  said,  'Pray  God  to  deliver  that  appetite.'  The 
whisky  demoralized  my  friend  in  every  respect,  but  in  three 
or  four  days  I  saw  him,  and  he  says  to  me,  'Your  remedy  is 
pretty  good.'  My  joy  and  thanks  is  wonderful.  I  tell  you 
alter  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  opened  our  eyes,  we  ought  to 
go  and  show  him  to  others.  Here  is  Mr.  Moody,  who  used 
to  go  down  into  the  saloons — I  know  it ;  and  we  used  to  say, 
what  business  has  he  to  come  down  here  for  people  to  go  to 
Farwell  Hall  to  his  prayer  and  preadiing?  Well,  when  we 
start  a  saloon  we  advertise  a  free  lunch  and  a  grand  opening, 
and  invite  people  to  go  in.  And  Brother  Moody  he  come 
and  invites  them  to  go  out.  Well  it  is  a  poor  rule  that  don't 
work  both  ways. 

"  Some  of  you  will  stick  up  the  nose  and  say  this  is  not  so ; 
but  1   know  for  myself.     There   is  only  one  way;  we  cannot 


538     Moody:  his  Words— Work— Workers. 

serve  the  Lord  in  the  morning  and  the  devil  at  night.  One 
day — just  to  show  you  how — I  felt  bad.  The  devil  he  told 
me,  'Why  don't  you  go  and  take  a  drink.  You  need  some 
whisky  to  put  you  all  right.'  So  I  put  on  my  coat  and  went 
out  of  my  place  the  back  way  to  a  saloon,  where  there  was  a 
back  bar.  I  said,  '  It  will  not  do  for  me  that  these  people 
shall  see  me  drink.  They  know  I  profess  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian, and  they  will  talk  about  it.'  But  when  I  got  there  I 
stood  right  in  the  door,  and  all  at  once  it  came  over  me,  like 
Mr.  Moody's  text,  'Adam,  where  art  thou  ?  '  I  look  very  well, 
don't  I?  professing  to  be  a  Christian  and  going  right  in  here 
with  the  devil ! '  Then  I  turn  round  and  say  to  the  devil, 
'You  get  away;'  and  I  go  straight  back  to  my  room,  and 
take  the  Bible,  and  open  to  the  fifth  chapter  of  James,  where 
he  says,  'Is  any  among  you  afflicted?  let  him  pray,'  and  I 
never  had  that  tantrum  again.     I  was  all  right." 

Another  recent  convert  arose  and  said  : — 

"  Four  weeks  ago  the  Lord  got  hold  of  me,  and  I  cried 
to  him  for  help.  I  had  been  a  great  sinner.  I  was  not  a 
drunkard,  but  I  was  getting  to  be  fond  of  liquor.  I  was  also 
terribly  profane.  How  good  is  God !  When  we  call  on  him 
to  damn  our  souls  he  don't  do  it,  but  when  we  call  on  him 
to  save  our  souls  he  comes  and  does  it  quick.  I  see  a  man 
here  in  the  audience  that  I  once  had  a  quarrel  with.  I  am^ 
sorry.     I  ask  your  pardon,  Mr.  S ." 

The  gentleman  replied,  "  It  is  all  pardoned." 

"  Now,"  continued  the  happy  convert,  "if  any  one  asks  me 
after  this,  'Do  you  live  in  Chicago?'  you  must  excuse  me 
if  I  do  not  answer,  'I  think  I  do,'  or,  'I  hope  I  do.'  So  if 
you  ask  me  if  I  have  begun  to  live  in  Christ,  I  will  not  say, 
'  I  think  so,'  or,  '  I  hope  so,'  but,  '  1  know  it.'  " 

A  Scotchman  said  in  the  broadest  of  dialects  : — 

"  I  want  to  tell  the  auld,  auld  story  aboot  prayin'  to  Jesus. 

Ye  all  pray  to  Jesus,  an'  speak  aboot  Jesus,  an'  thot's  right. 

Here   is  wha  you're  safe  an'  soond.     Muster  Moody's  like 


The  Gospel  Temperance  Revival.         539 

the  thread  an'  needle — a-drawin'  the  whole  coontrie  togither; 
an'  he  says  for  baith  the  young  and  auld  to  coom  to  Jesus." 

A  German  in  the  back  part  of  the  room  said  : — 
"Now,  my  dear  broders  and  sisters,  I  vas  drunk  two  years, 
unci  didn't  go  to  bet  many  times  ven  I  vas  sober.  I  used  to 
trink  bier  before  breakfast.  I  vas  tree  times  in  der  Bride- 
well, und  der  last  time  I  brayed  for  to  be  released,  und  I 
vas  answered  und  let  out.  The  man  who  bailed  me  out  vas 
a  drunkard  like  mineself,  und  I  vant  you  all  to  bray  for  him. 
I  proke  a  bane  of  glass  in  a  saloon  und  split  mine  ear  open, 
und  never  knew  vat  I  vas  doin'  until  der  next  morning. 
My  wife  she  come  und  wake  me  up,  und  then  I  felt  pad  und 
sorry  for  mine  sin,  und  I  brayed  to  keep  temperance  all  my 
lifetime." 

Another  man  said  : — 

"I'd  like  to  say  a  word.  I've  been  mortified  often  at  not 
speaking  in  these  meetings  when  I  knew  that  I  ought  to  do  so. 
It  is  a  great  blessing  that  the  off-scourings  of  the  streets  can 
be  saved.  During  the  two  weeks  that  I've  been  here  I  have 
seen  so  many  men  lying  around  low  saloons  that  I  have  been 
greatly  perplexed  as  to  how  I  might  reach  them.  I  used 
to  be  a  bad  man.  I  was  arrested  eleven  times,  and  had 
the  delirium  tremens ;  but  the  Holy  Ghost  came  down  and 
saved  me." 

At  the  close  of  the  meeting  Mr.  Moody  mentioned  a  man 
who,  at  the  men's  meeting  at  ten  o'clock  yesterday,  arose 
for  prayer,  saying  he  had  not  been  inside  a  church  for  forty- 
three  years.  Another  man,  who  was  written  to  by  an  ac- 
quaintance, was  startled  to  receive  a  note  commencing,  "  M\ 
Dear  Friend."  "  What  does  that  mean  ?"  said  he.  "  1 
haven't  any  friend."  but  he  kept  the  appointment,  and  was 
invited  to  go  to  the  Tabernacle.  He  refused,  saying  his 
clothes  were  too  ragged,  and  that  he  was  too  badly  cut  up 
about  the  face — he  had  been  on  a  spree,  and  in  a  tight,  ami 
had  his  eye  blackened  and  his  face  cut  open — but  he  was  told 


540      Moody  :  his  Words — Work — Workers. 

that  every  body  was  welcome  there.  Then  he  had  another 
reason  for  not  coming  :  he  was  afraid  he  couldn't  stand  it 
till  nine  o'clock  without  going  out  to  take  a  drink.  "  I  don't 
know,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  "but  that  is  what  ails  those  people 
who  get  up  and  go  out  while  I  am  preaching.  But  at  last  he 
came  and  was  converted — people  seem  to  get  converted  so 
easy — and  when  they  get  a  taste  of  the  new  wine  of  the  king- 
dom, they  don't  want  any  more  cheap  Chicago  whisky." 

Mr.  Sawyer,  now  at  work  in  connection  with  Messrs.  Moody 
and  Sankey  in  Boston,  reports  that  the  Chicago  reconstructed 
men  are  "  holding  out  beautifully."  Mr.  Latimer  and  Scotch 
"Willie"  have  become  widely  useful  as  Gospel  temperance 
speakers  and  workers  ;  Mr.  Murray  is  president  of  the  Re- 
formed Men's  Club  ;  Mr.  Ben  Patrick  has  been  restored  to 
his  honorable  position  in  the  office  of  the  North-western  Rail- 
way office,  while  the  work  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union,  assisted  by  these  strong  reinforcements,  is  going 
forward  with   new  life  and  vigor. 

The  Boston  work  opens  hopefully,  and  has  already  won 
some  trophies  for  Christ.  So  wide  an  interest  is  felt  in  this 
Gospel  Temperance  Revival  that  letters  are  constantly  re- 
ceived from  all  parts  of  the  country  asking  for  prayers  on  be- 
half of  drunkards  who  feel  themselves  utterly  helpless ;  and 
parents  living  at  a  distance  are  sending  their  dissipated  sons 
to  the  Boston  meetings,  as  they  did  to  those  in  Chicago,  with 
the  hope  that  they  may  find  deliverance  from  their  appetites 
through  faith  in  the  Saviour  of  sinners. 


THE   END. 


/ 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


UC  SOl/THFR/u  di 


